JACKSON — For the better part of last week’s officer-identification task-force meeting at the Jackson Municipal Art Gallery, some of the members didn’t know they had a prominent guest.
In its sixth meeting since April without any recommendation, the group carried on its usual banter and monologues about policing, which some members would agree are getting a bit repetitive. It wasn’t until the task force’s co-chair, attorney CJ Lawrence, mentioned that he wanted to ask the district attorney how many officers his office has indicted that everyone realized that Robert Shuler Smith was in the room.
“Is he here?” Paul Hobson, a Jackson Police Department detective, asked as he looked around the room.
The Hinds County district attorney sat quietly at the end of an L-shaped meeting table inside the City’s art gallery—a former stately home tucked behind tall trees and flora that line the garden entryway. Smith sipped from a 20-ounce plastic bottle of Coca-Cola and plucked potato chips carefully without rustling the bag.
After his snack, he scribbled notes randomly with a No. 2 yellow pencil.
Jackson’s officer-ID task force invited the district attorney of Mississippi’s largest county to speak to them about how officer-involved shootings go through the local criminal-justice system.
Smith’s public appearances in the last two years have mainly been in circuit courts as he battled charges that range from hindering prosecution to domestic violence. His Rankin County domestic-violence trial will resume in the fall, after nearly a year of court-ordered delay.
The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
