Officials with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety are seeking a hefty budget increase to hire more troopers and make upgrades. MPB's Desare Frazier reports.
Mississippi Department of Public Safety is authorized to have 650 troopers according to Pat Cronin with the agency's Administrative Operations. At a Senate Appropriation Committee budget hearing he said they have 508 troopers with 130 eligible to retire. They're asking for a $55 million budget increase. Cronin says they need funding for more trooper schools. He adds violent inmate uprisings like the recent ones at Parchman Penitentiary require they provide assistance.
"We had to send over 100 troopers just a couple of weeks ago for a 14 day stay at the Department of Corrections at Parchman and that cost us just about $500,000 just for that alone
Cronin says it department's seven divisions, include the state crime lab, Bureau of Narcotics and Homeland Security. He says additional funding would help upgrade the crime lab, hire more staff and increase salaries. Cronin says forensic scientists make $32,000 per year.
"Well they come here and get trained for a couple of years and they go to out contiguous states and the salaries are generally $10 to $20,000 more a year
Cronin adds if they receive funding from other state sources that could drop their request significantly.
Senator Briggs Hopson of Vicksburg chairs the Appropriations Committee.
"A lot of people with a lot of requests. I think there are probably over $1 billion dollars worth of additional requests on top of the funds that were allocated and appropriated last year," said Hopson.
Hopson says its too soon to prioritize the requests. Last year the agency received $102 million.
