Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announces about $64 million in federal funding coming to the city of Jackson to help fight crime. Image courtesy of Reeves' social media account.
- Mississippi’s capital city was one of four municipalities approved for funding under the Department of Justice’s Model Cities Initiative.
What was initially reported as a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Model Cities Initiative to the city of Jackson will actually amount to $64 million over three years.
Back on October 30, an announcement from the Mississippi Congressional Delegation announced the award from the DOJ program would be $100 million. However, on Monday afternoon, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the amount is just shy of $64 million.
When asked why the amount had changed between the two dates, Blanche said he was unaware of any previous announcement concerning the amount of funding to be provided under the program.
“I don’t know anything about that announcement, sorry, so I can I can’t speak to it,” Blanche stated in Jackson. “I can tell you I didn’t read that announcement.”
Blanche made it clear that Mississippi’s capital city was one of only four municipalities to receive a portion of the $300 million allocated to the federal program.
In all, 47 cities applied in June when the window opened, with 21 selected as semifinalists and 11 asked to meet with the Department of Justice. The city of Jackson was one of the four selected for funding.
“We selected Jackson because of your leadership’s pitch to do a whole-of-government approach to reducing violent crime,” Blanche described.
Jackson has become nationally known for the wrong types of statistics, including an abnormally high violent crime rate. Between August 2025 and August of this year, there were 8,000 reports of shots being fired in the city, all within a one and a half square mile portion of the city, Blanche described.
“That’s not fair to Jackson’s residents,” Blanche said. “It’s not fair to visitors, and it’s not fair to the generations of Mississippians who call Jackson their home.”
Screenshot from DOJ livestream.
Jackson Police Chief Dr. Rashall Brackney made it clear efforts to address crime under her watch will be about more than just putting more boots on the ground. She believes efforts to identify the underlying factors of why violent crime happens are just as important to responding to crimes when they occur.
She added that law enforcement agencies cannot arrest their way out of the problem.
“It is influenced by the physical environment, economic opportunity, neighborhood instability, untreated trauma, behavioral health, substance use, social networks and the strength or absence of the institutions that connect people to opportunities and support,” Brackney explained. “If we only respond to the incident, we risk leaving the conditions that produce it untouched. And if we only concentrate on where crime happens without understanding why it happens, we will continually find ourselves responding to the same problems. We have to change the conditions not simply manage the consequences.”
Some of the efforts the funding will be used for include expanding the number of officers on patrol, increasing the department’s investigative capacity, adding prosecution capacity, and creating a real-time public safety center where a fleet of drones could be deployed for real-time crime-fighting capability.
“And so when you have a population like in Jackson Mississippi, with a shrinking tax revenue, this will make an immediate, large, helpful impact in this city for years and years to come,” Blanche added “You’re going to have more cops on the street, and the cops on the street are going to be working with better equipment, better technology and better information.”
Governor Tate Reeves (R) said the federal funding will be used to further invest in the public safety within Jackson, pointing to previous investments by the state in the creation of the Capitol Police Department, establishment of a new court, and other efforts to ensure the safety of Jackson’s residents, families and business owners.
“We’ve put more law enforcement officers on the streets. We’ve created a new court to provide additional resources to prosecute those who break the law and to hold criminals accountable, and we provided additional funding to the Hinds County District Attorney’s office to hire more prosecutors, more assistant district attorneys and additional criminal investigators,” Reeves said.
The additional funding will allow law enforcement agencies access to more crime lab capacity to solve crimes faster.
Mayor John Horhn (D) said the funds will be part of pivotal efforts under his administration to reduce the violence on the streets of Jackson.
“This decision today, this announcement today, about Jackson’s selection for the Model Cities Initiative, represents an important investment in the safety and future of our city,” Horhn said. “These resources will strengthen our forensic and investigative capabilities, support our public safety professionals and expand community partnerships to help prevent violence. And it is violence that we plan, and we intend, to stamp out in our capital city.”
