News Releases

U.S. Attorney, DEA and Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers Study MPD’s Innovative Programs

Nov 20th, 2015

Mobile, AL—The U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, Clarksdale Mayor, Coahama Sheriff, and senior national and Mississippi law enforcement officers learned first-hand about two innovative programs being used by the Mobile Police Department at a meeting on Nov. 19, 2015.

U.S. Attorney Kenyen Brown, Mobile Police Chief James Barber and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge (Mobile Division) Robert Lasky reviewed the Second Chance or Else and Bridging the Gap programs with the visiting U.S. Attorney; Clarksdale, Mississippi mayor; Coahoma County, MS, sheriff; and representatives of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Agency; Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and University of Mississippi. The meeting was arranged by U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama Kenyen Brown.

"The Second Chance or Else (SCORE) program and the Bridging the Gap program help make everyone in Mobile safer and show respect to everybody through more effective law enforcement and by helping citizens obey our laws, especially young people," Barber said. "We are glad to share them with local, state and national law enforcement as well as incorporate their ideas and suggestions."

Brown said his office, the Mobile Police Department and Mobile Division of the FBI worked together to create and launch the programs in Mobile. Citizens from Mobile communities provided insights into the needs of people in their communities and agreed to work with participants in the Second Chance program.

Brown said that Chief Barber and the Mobile Police Department are innovators in creating proactive crime prevention and community outreach programs. He pointed out that in addition to collaboration with the U. S. Attorney's office in Mobile and the Mobile Division of the FBI, the Mobile Police Department also works with a host of other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.

The Mobile Police Department has launched five new programs to help make Mobile the safest city in America with respect for everyone in the last 18 months, Barber said. All of these programs benefit the participants, their families, the people of their neighborhoods and the entire city by delivering safety and respect for everyone.

Lasky explained that the Bridging the Gap program brings police officers and young people together to learn about each other and the laws that protect them. Included in the program are behavior guidelines for police officers and citizens that can help keep encounters with law enforcement safe for citizens and officers. Students, mostly composed of ninth-graders, who attend the sessions work with officers and FBI Agents and use role playing to simulate a traffic stop, street encounter, and home encounter to show the right way and the wrong way to behave during the encounters and how such situations can escalate, if not conducted with mutual respect. Using classroom instruction and a Firearms Training Simulator, students are also taught about the police officers' use of force and how quickly such decisions have to be made. It shows the students the many challenges that law enforcement officers face in protecting our communities. Both students and police officers who have been through the course report increased respect and cooperation with each other.

He said Bridging the Gap was introduced to the FBI Special Agents in Charge of every office in the United States two weeks ago and will be implemented by the FBI across the country.

"The Second Chance program helps low-level, non-violent drug dealers turn their lives around by accepting responsibility for their actions, completing their educations, supporting their families, securing and succeeding at legitimate time work and ending their own use of illegal drugs," Brown said. "The first participants recently received their six-month certificates that mark their progress in the program."

Given the challenges facing law enforcement today in our country, programs such as these go a long way in building law enforcement and community trust, said Brown.

Barber said Second Chance and Bridging the Gap are only two of five programs introduced with videotapes by the Mobile Police Department over the last 18 months. Other programs include: You Still Have A Choice that offers help to you people at risk of illegal drug use and other crime, Everything About Spice is a lie that shows the deadly components of the popular illegal drug called Spice being prepared in a dirty kitchen and warns of its serious health dangers, Respect for Everyone that introduces safety guidelines for citizens and police officers and shows how citizens and law enforcement officers should behave to keep encounters safe.

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