Police to limit Mississippi capital roadblocks after lawsuit

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Police in Mississippi’s capital city have agreed to pull back on aggressive roadblocks. This comes in response to a lawsuit that said Jackson officers were violating people’s constitutional right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. A settlement was reached Wednesday in the federal class-action lawsuit filed in February. The Mississippi Center for Justice and the MacArthur Justice Center accused the police department of using roadblocks in majority-Black and low-income neighborhoods to try to catch suspects. The settlement says Jackson police can conduct safety checkpoints “only for constitutionally acceptable purposes” and “with a minimal amount of intrusion or motorist inconvenience.”