The work of a corruption-fighting University of Virginia alumna has resulted in a sweeping U.S. Department of Justice report that confirmed her findings of police abuses in a small Mississippi town.
Jill Collen Jefferson, a 2009 graduate profiled by UVA Today in August, has twice sued the police department in Lexington, Mississippi, on behalf of citizens, alleging a range of misconduct. The 45-page Justice Department report likewise concluded that police officers routinely arrested residents – most often Black residents – for minor infractions as part of a scheme to collect more fines and fees. The Justice Department report also chronicled instances of police brutality.
Jefferson told The Washington Post she burst into tears when reading the government report.
“This community has been through so much. They’ve finally been heard,” Jefferson told the newspaper. “The local government abused them, the state government ignored them, and the FBI refused to believe them. It took the highest levels of government to finally address these abuses.”
The Justice Department will now seek changes in how the town polices its citizens.
