Sen. Wicker, left, shakes hands with Biloxi Police Chief John Miller as Assistant Chief Mike Wills looks on.
Biloxi Police Chief John Miller and Assistant Chief Michael Wills were in Washington this week to meet with U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker to discuss the local impacts of the federally-funded Regional Information Sharing Systems.
Wicker has been a strong proponent of the system, known as RISS. The program is locally-managed and provides 172 Mississippi law enforcement agencies and thousands more across the country with resources to fight multi-jurisdictional crimes such as drug and human trafficking.
Wicker said RISS services have had a measurable impact in Mississippi, where more than 7,200 officers rely on the system’s resources to combat organized and violent crime, gang activity, drug activity, terrorism and violent extremism, human trafficking, identity theft, and cybercrime.
Miller and Wills told Wicker that Mississippi’s member agencies, who pay just $300 a year, have access to a number of shared intelligence databases that would be prohibitively expensive for smaller jurisdictions to access on their own. Members are also free to request high-tech investigative and surveillance equipment loans which can be used to help close cases.
