JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves is proposing a $7.5 million program to help schools hire trained and armed law enforcement officers to work on campus.
Reeves said Friday he'll ask lawmakers to approve the plan this session. Individual schools could apply for $10,000 from the state, and the schools would have to spend at least that much themselves.
Reeves says if the plan is popular, lawmakers could expand it later. The $7.5 million would cover 750 of the roughly 1,050 public school campuses.
He says 369 officers are already working in schools, some splitting their time among multiple campuses.
Reeves also wants Mississippi courts to report to a national criminal-information database when a person is committed to a mental institution or is found guilty of a crime because of insanity.
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