Homeland Security, the city's newest department, and the only such department in any city in Mississippi, is dedicated to the mission of ensuring safety for our residents, providing sophisticated training for local and area agencies and serving as the lead team for disasters and other emergency response situations.

This new department has already received an impressive $2.5 million in grants from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Riley Foundation.

Those grants were used in part to train law enforcement officers from other southern states, to purchase equipment needed in the event of any terrorism response, to build a multi-story drill tower at the Public Safety Training Center and to hire planning and training coordinators to assist the nine-county regional response team. That team includes Clarke, Smith, Jasper, Scott, Newton, Kemper, Neshoba and Leake counties in addition to Lauderdale County .

The new department's capabilities were tested early as Hurricane Ivan hit in September. The department served as emergency coordinator, taking more than 300 calls received during the first 48 hours and, with help from other city departments, making damage assessments that led to emergency declarations from both the state and federal emergency management agencies. Our staff worked with volunteer agencies to establish and support shelters for 700 evacuees from other communities and set up a relief center so the Federal Emergency Management Agency could take applications from residents seeking disaster relief.

Training is the hallmark of professionalism for emergency responders, and our department offered an impressive array of 58 classes attended by more than 863 students. Some of the classes included passenger rail rescue, civilian classes in basic handguns, Boy Scout first aid and hunting, and firearms training utilized by our own staff and numerous other agencies like the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department, NAS Meridian, Peavey security, Rush security, the Internal Revenue Service, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Mississippi State Department of Health, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and police and fire departments from around the state.

Eight responders from Ridgeland who attended the Passenger Rail Emergency Response Class had their training put to the test when an Amtrak train derailed just north of Yazoo City . The Ridgeland chief remarked later that the training received in Meridian allowed his responders to take the lead in preventing further injuries or death. That's a testament to the training provided by the Homeland Security Department.

Listing of Training Sessions Available .pdf format