The former funeral home in downtown Jackson where countless residents attended visitations and services for deceased family members and friends has a new use.
The Capitol Police command staff moved into part of the former Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home facility on High Street in mid-October.
The Capitol Police force captains and higher-ranking leaders occupy the second floor of the building, which is west of the large one on the property.
“What it has done is put our command staff in one central location,” said Capitol Police Chief Bo Luckey. “It’s been a lot more efficient to have everybody under one roof. It’s much easier to communicate with the different divisions of Capitol Police.”
The command staff was previously housed at the Woolfolk State Office Building, the Department of Public Safety Driver Services and in the Regions Bank building.
The Capitol Police dispatch, communications center and patrol officers will occupy the first floor of the building after the start of the new year.
“Our dispatch center is complete as far as being able to house dispatchers with the capabilities they have now,” Luckey said. “We’re still waiting on AT&T, the driving force behind 911. They’re trying to finish up the technology that is needed.”
Currently Capitol Police dispatch receives calls 24 hours seven days a week on its main number, 601-359-3125. The Jackson Police Department dispatch transfers calls from its 911 system to Capitol Police.
“The new dispatch will be able to receive 911 calls directly,” Luckey said. “It will create more efficiency in our response time.”
Capitol Police employs eight to 10 dispatchers and hopes to hire additional ones so it will eventually have a total of 20, he said. The Capitol Police dispatchers will also be monitoring security cameras in state-owned buildings in addition to answering calls.
“We are hiring new dispatchers,” he said, noting that improvements to the dispatcher’s pay scale are in the works.
The pay scale for Capitol Police officers was revamped to make it more competitive with other law enforcement agencies.
Capitol Police employs 156 officers and has several uncertified officers (those with less than a year’s experience) and lateral transfer officers who are in the background process of being hired, Luckey said.
The pay for an uncertified officer is $46,700 annually and it is $50,000 annually for an officer with a lateral transfer who has more than one year’s experience, he said.
“Just two years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to find law enforcement with 10, 15 years of experience making $30,000,” Luckey said. “When I came on Capitol Police, the first thing we did was get up the pay up for Capitol Police, which allowed us to hire a lot of officers.”
The goal is for Capitol Police to have 185 officers by June 2025.
In July, the boundaries of the CCID expanded from Meadowbrook Road to East Northside Drive in the north and to I-20 in the south. In the north, it runs east to west from the Pearl River to the Illinois Central rail line. The new boundaries include I-20 from the Stack, and portions of Raymond Road, Ellis Avenue, Lynch Street, Prentiss Street and Bailey Avenue.
Another expansion of the boundaries was approved during the last legislative session that will move them east of I-55 up to Beasley Road, Luckey said.
“For that area, we have not gotten the budget aligned for that and we will be working on that and officers we need for that area,” he said.
Capitol Police works on a daily basis with the Jackson Police Department and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office in addition to the Mississippi Department of Public Safety and other state and federal agencies, he said.
Many of the cases that Capitol Police respond to are property crimes such as auto burglaries and auto thefts, he said.
“For the CCID, knock on wood, we’ve had a great year where violent crime numbers seem to be trending down,” Luckey said. “The year’s not over and I don’t’ want to jinx it.
We are seeing a small decrease in violent criminal activity, which was never the majority of our casework.”
Luckey points to security at the Mississippi State Fair as a show of success for Capitol Police, JPD and the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office.
“For the last three years we’ve been able to secure the state fair so that we’ve had no major incidents,” he said.
