Gulfport's Police Department Utilizes Small Town Methods

Gulfport Police Officer Lt. Brian Smith on Patrol

Mississippi’s second largest city, Gulfport, is set to receive four new police officers as part of a nationwide billion dollar grant program through the federal recovery act. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports on how those new officers will help the city get back to community policing.

It’s nearing the end of a 12 hour shift, and Gulfport police lieutenant Brian Smith is patrolling highway 49, one of the busiest roads in the city.

“You look around, you’re always seeing the surroundings, you’re seeing the people that are walking are they looking suspicious, you look at the vehicles, are there tags expired. Just you know the little things.”

Lt. Smith is one of 202 sworn officers in the Gulfport police department, one of the largest in the state. That department will receive just over 625,000 thousand dollars to hire four new officers, making it the largest grant recipient in Mississippi. But although Gulfport is one of the largest municipalities, the Gulfport police department operates with a small town mentality. Assigning officers to their own patrol grids which they return to at each shift, and using a community policing method. Deputy Chief Leonard Papania says the four new officers hired through the grant will only boost that effort,

“In some ways what we attempt to do through community poling is to enjoy the same things stonewall Mississippi does, and knowing our people, and our people knowing us. The bigger the city the greater the challenge, and the more faces you have the greater the chances of reaching everybody in our community.”

Gulfport’s crime rates have fallen in the past few years, and back in the patrol car Lt. Smith says that’s in part due to the relationships police officers make with residents,

“Every time they work they are in the same area so they do get to know not just the bad guys, but also the people in the community, who make the community, the good ones.”

More than 5 million dollars in grants have been awarded to hire new officers in Mississippi, that will fund the hiring and rehiring of 41 officers statewide.