Over Jackson legislators' protests, the Mississippi Legislature decides to increase the Capitol Police.

The Mississippi legislature decided this week to increase the authority of the state police, who have come under fire for shooting four people in Jackson since last summer.

One of the main initiatives by primarily white Republican state leaders to assert more control over law enforcement in the predominantly Black, Democrat-led capital was the expansion of the Mississippi Capitol Police to monitor the entirety of Jackson. A second, related measure that also passed this week establishes a temporary court system outside of city control to hear low-level cases in the Capitol Complex Improvement District of the city. Judges will be chosen by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and prosecutors will be chosen by the state attorney general.

State Representative Trey Lamar, a Republican who represents a district in northern Mississippi and is one of the bill's authors, stated, "I believe it's the appropriate thing to provide security from criminal activities and help the city of Jackson and it is my hope and prayer that this law will assist”.

State Senator John Horhn, a Black Democrat from Jackson who has backed the Capitol Police, agreed that the city's crime issue needed to be addressed. On Thursday, he said to his coworkers, "But the way this looks suggests something else. And that plays directly into the outdated stereotypes about Mississippi that the rest of the nation has.

An enquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Reeves' office.

The legislation' supporters said that they were attempting to assist Jackson in dealing with historic increases in murders and a taxed court system. Since the Capitol Police started patrolling areas of Jackson outside of state facilities this summer, some citizens have welcomed them, claiming that the city needed more police officers because the Jackson Police Department has been understaffed.

Nonetheless, the Capitol Police has come under fire for the four shootings, including one in which a father of two was slain and another in which a mother was hurt while lying in bed, for lacking openness. The organisation operates outside the purview of local officials, and its 2006-era use-of-force and automobile chase policies remain in effect today. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is still looking into the shootings, which have received scant explanation from the Capitol Police. In the near future, the department promised, it would amend the policies governing force and chases.

The Department of Public Safety, which is in charge of the Capitol Police, would have primary jurisdiction in Jackson's 8.7-square-mile Capitol Complex Improvement District, which covers both the downtown government facilities and nearby communities. Last summer, the district was first patrolled by the Capitol Police. Nevertheless, if the proposal becomes law, the Capitol Police would also be permitted to patrol and make arrests everywhere in the city.

The other bill that was approved this week was centred on the new temporary court that would deal with offences committed within the boundaries of the Capitol Complex Improvement District. The court's functions would terminate in 2027, and the district would be expanded to the north and south in July 2024 under the proposed legislation. Although the Capitol Police is not specifically mentioned in the measure, it mandates that its personnel wear body cameras.

The growing function of the Mississippi Capitol Police in Jackson

A street-crime team was established by the Mississippi Capitol Police last summer to patrol areas of Jackson outside of the city's official buildings.

The agency has received criticism for conducting aggressive patrols in the predominantly Black city, and it has an unusually high amount of authority for a state capitol police department.

An innocent 49-year-old lady was shot in the arm while laying in bed during a Capitol Police automobile chase in December. The moment an officer fired appears to be captured on surveillance footage.

This week, the proposals were the subject of lengthy debate in the California Senate and House. Republicans in the surrounding areas of Jackson — Democratic politicians from Jackson, who attacked the proposals, claimed that the sponsors were dictating the city how to solve its problems without seeking the opinion of local leaders. This was criticised as being racist.

The Capitol Police, according to Democratic Representative Edward Blackmon Jr. of Madison County, which is located immediately north of Jackson, "have no accountability to the city of Jackson." Throughout the entire state of Mississippi, this is unique. We are the only race that goes through this kind of procedure, so it is a race issue.

Rep. Nick Bain, a Republican from Alcorn County, more than 200 miles from Jackson, and the author of the legislation extending the authority of the Capitol Police, declared on Friday that he was unable to mend the scars left by racism but that he was working to assist Jackson residents who feel unsafe.

We simply want to be more present and more powerful in order to defend the capital city that I and everyone else adore, according to Bain.

Chokwe Antar Lumumba, the mayor of Jackson, did not immediately reply to calls for comment. Moreover, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety refrained from commenting right away.