DOJ Reaches Settlement With Mississippi Police Department Over Civil Rights Violations
The Justice Department will oversee reforms in Lexington, Mississippi, after finding routine violations of civil rights against Black residents.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday it has reached a settlement with the City of Lexington, Mississippi, and its police department to implement reforms following a DOJ investigation that found the department routinely violated citizens' civil rights. The investigation, initiated in 2023, cited discrimination against Black residents, excessive force, and retaliation against critics.
A scathing DOJ report released in 2024 detailed how the Lexington Police Department targeted Black individuals for arrests, made arrests for minor offenses to generate revenue, and detained people for extended periods if they could not afford to pay fines. This practice of jailing individuals for unpaid fines without assessing their ability to pay violates the Fourteenth Amendment.
The settlement requires the city and police department to overhaul practices concerning fines, bail, stops, searches, and the use of force, bringing them into compliance with federal and state law. Specifically, the agreement bars the Lexington police from continuing to jail people for unpaid fines and mandates the dismissal of all existing warrants for unlawful fine-based convictions. Records of these unlawful convictions are also to be expunged.
Furthermore, the city and its police department are prohibited from establishing quotas or incentive systems for stops, warnings, citations, arrests, or related revenue generation. The DOJ previously found that between 2022 and 2024, the Lexington Police Department's arrest rate was more than 10 times the per-capita rate for the state of Mississippi.
The department must also implement DOJ-approved training on stops, searches, arrests, and the use of force. Systems for documentation and review will be put in place to ensure these actions comply with the law.
"Through these reforms, we seek not only to address the concerns identified in our investigation, but also to strengthen public trust and promote practices that respect the rights and dignity of every person," said U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger for the Southern District of Mississippi in a news release. The DOJ will collaborate with the city and police to ensure the alleged violations are remedied.
The agreement is set for three years but may be shortened or extended based on mutual determination of compliance. The DOJ launched its probe after citizens accused officers of using roadblocks to target Black drivers, employing excessive force, engaging in sexual assault, and making unjustified arrests.