DOJ Settlement Forces Reforms on Lexington, Mississippi Police

JACKSON, Mississippi. The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday, October 16, 2026 that it has reached a settlement with the city of Lexington, Mississippi and its police department, two years after federal investigators found the department routinely violated the civil rights of the people it polices.

The agreement forces changes across fines, bail, stops, searches, arrests and use of force. The Associated Press reported that the Justice Department found the Lexington Police Department discriminated against Black people, used excessive force and retaliated against critics. The Justice Department's own statement said the department engages in a pattern or practice of civil rights violations, as set out in its findings report of September 26, 2024.

A small town with an extreme arrest rate

Lexington is a rural, poor, majority Black city about 65 miles north of Jackson. The 2024 federal report said officers targeted Black people for arrests, made arrests for low level offenses to generate money for the department, and locked people up for long stretches when they could not afford to pay fines.

The numbers in the federal findings are stark. Between 2022 and 2024, the department made one arrest for every four people in town, more than 10 times the per capita arrest rate for Mississippi as a whole. The city court had issued arrest warrants for more than 650 people, roughly half the city's population, over unpaid fines.

The Justice Department opened its investigation in 2023 after residents accused officers of using roadblocks to target Black drivers, using excessive force and arresting people without justification, among other complaints.

What the settlement requires

Under the agreement, Lexington and its police must dismiss all existing warrants for unpaid fines and fees that violate the law, and move to expunge the records of unlawful fine based convictions. Police may no longer jail people for unpaid fines without first checking whether they can afford to pay, a practice the Justice Department said violates the Fourteenth Amendment.

The city and the department are also barred from running any quota or incentive system for stops, warnings, citations, arrests or related revenue. Officers will get Justice Department approved training on stops, searches, arrests and use of force, and the department must build documentation and review systems so supervisors can check that those actions were lawful. The city will also amend its policies on fines and fees, bail and release criteria, and conflicts of interest.

The agreement lasts three years. It can be shortened or extended if both sides agree the city and the department have reached compliance, the Justice Department said.

Why it matters

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the department supports local law enforcement and was pleased the city reached an agreement to strengthen lawful policing. U.S. Attorney J.E. Baxter Kruger for the Southern District of Mississippi said the reforms aim to fix the problems the investigation found, build public trust and protect the rights and dignity of every person.

The Associated Press said it called and emailed city and police officials on Friday and did not immediately receive responses.

What happens next

The work now shifts from findings to follow through. Federal officials said they will work with the city and the department to make sure the violations are remedied. For Lexington residents, the first visible tests will be practical ones: whether old fine warrants are actually dismissed, whether people stop being jailed over debts they cannot pay, and whether arrest numbers fall from the extreme levels the federal report documented.