Lafayette County sheriff’s office secures state public-safety grant

Lafayette County’s sheriff’s office secured a $110,000 public-safety grant from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, giving the county outside money for equipment that local taxpayers would otherwise have to cover. County officials said the award will pay for a new side-by-side utility vehicle to help deputies reach remote parts of Lafayette County more easily.

The county highlighted the grant on March 18, and the next day The Oxford Eagle reported that the sheriff’s office had been awarded the state funding. A photo caption with that report noted that Sheriff Joey East recently met with Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, underscoring the local and state connection behind the award.

The new vehicle is aimed at patrol work in areas that are harder to reach by standard cruiser, a practical need in a county that includes Oxford’s busier streets and commercial areas as well as more rural stretches around Abbeville, Taylor and Harmontown. The sheriff’s department, located at 711 Jackson Ave. East in Oxford, says it is responsible for law enforcement throughout Lafayette County and for administration of the Lafayette County Jail.

For county government, the grant offers a way to add capability without putting the full cost on the local budget. Public-safety purchases like this can ease pressure on sheriff’s office funds when officials need specialized equipment that supports patrol operations, response time and access to rough terrain. In a countywide agency, that kind of vehicle can also improve day-to-day coverage in places where a regular patrol car is less useful.

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety’s Office of Highway Safety says it offers funding opportunities to law enforcement agencies and other state agencies, and the department’s grant programs are one of the main ways local departments in Mississippi get help with public-safety needs. In Lafayette County, the focus now turns to when the vehicle will be put into service and how deputies will use it to expand patrols beyond the roads most residents see every day.