The Meridian Police Department has reached substantial compliance in a 2015 consent decree with the Department of Justice, moving to a phase of self evaluation. 

Police Chief Benny Dubose and city attorney Reed Darsey, of Glover, Young, Hammack, Walton and Simmons, PLLC, said during a Thursday night meeting at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church the department had reached the new phase. 

In 2011, the DOJ investigated the City of Meridian and Lauderdale County, later adding the Mississippi Division of Youth Services (DYS), a part of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, for an alleged “pipeline” from the Meridian Public School District to the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Center.

A DOJ complaint, filed in 2012, alleged the defendants neglected the constitutional rights of children by incarcerating them for minor school rule infractions, denying their court rights of due process and fairness and, for the DYS, their role in probation services provided.

As part of the consent decree, the city must hold meetings every six months to update the community on its progress. The decree focused on several areas, including updating policies and procedures, new training, providing civilian complaint forms online (at the city website) and at the police station, collecting and publishing reports to the website and establishing a memorandum of understanding with the Meridian Public School District. 

“We’re trying to be very transparent on all of this,” Darsey said. 

Dubose reflected on the training that the DOJ required, saying “the bias-free policing is some of the best training we’ve received in years.”

The training demonstrated hidden biases that officers may have and helped them understand how to address them. 

“I think it’s something we will continue to do,” Dubose said.

Rather than thinking of the requirements from the DOJ as punishment, Dubose said he looked at how they helped the department.  

“It made us modernize our policies, forced our hand in making sure our policies were up-to-date,” Dubose said. “It showed us where our weaknesses were.”

Sparse attendance

In addition to Dubose, Darsey and Nicole Porter, a trial attorney with the DOJ, four people attended Thursday’s meeting, including a reporter from The Meridian Star.

 Darsey reflected on the sparse attendance, despite spreading the word via The Meridian Star, radio and social media. Angela Turner, an attendee, suggested reaching out to parents to the Boys and Girls Club as well. 

Porter also suggested combining the city meeting with the state meeting for DYS. The last DYS meeting was in March. 

Porter said that if the city maintained compliance that its next meeting, scheduled for October, would be its last and the city could leave the consent decree by the end of the year.