FBI Jackson announced Thursday 10 arrests were made and 50 grams of methamphetamines as well as over 400 grams of fentanyl were seized as part of Operation Summer Heat, a national effort to combat violent crime during peak summer months.
The federal agency also called for more collaboration from local communities and agencies.
Special Agent in Charge Robert Eikhoff said 40% of Mississippi’s law enforcement agencies do not provide information to the National Incident Based Reporting System. In 2023, the FBI reported that 73.2% of law enforcement agencies nationwide reported their data to NIBRS.
The FBI can only assist agencies where it sees a need.
Winston County and the city of Louisville were chosen for a targeted operation due to increased criminal activity. In Winston County, with a population of less than 17,500, the national reporting system data shows crimes against people increased by 130% from 2020 to 2023. In 2024, 104 crimes were reported by the Winston Police Department and 99 were reported by the Winston County Sheriff’s Department.
Eikhoff wants local agencies to report data to the national system to understand what “communities are experiencing” and to help become “partners” with federal law enforcement.
The FBI created the system in the 1980s, but it didn’t become the official crime data tracker until 2021. It tracks 44 more offense types than the previous tracker, includes demographic data, and location categories like hotel or school, among other data that provides context to crime.
The last reporting system only listed the most serious offense from each reported crime. It now includes every offense committed as part of a crime.
A recently passed Mississippi law mandated that all local agencies report numbers to the FBI data base by Dec. 31, 2025. A previous version of the law would deprive state funding from law enforcement agencies that didn’t report data. As early as 2013, the Department of Justice has offered grant money to help agencies report their data.
Former Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson was part of the initial meetings to help law enforcement agencies report their data to the National Incident Based Reporting System, in 2017. He was surprised to learn that Mississippi tracked domestic violence fatalities from statewide newspaper coverage.
In 2025, the FBI is hoping to collaborate with other local agencies that might lack the equipment and budget to investigate crime.
“If we don’t have that relationship, then we can’t have that conversation and express to them what resources are available through us,” Eikhoff said.
Rural counties and financially struggling law enforcement agencies don’t always have the tools and manpower to investigate serious crimes. The consequences can be low clearance rates and low morale.
The mean annual wage for police and sheriff’s patrol officers in Mississippi was $42,900 in 2023, which is among the lowest in the country. Old equipment and proper training requires higher police budgets than some rural cities and counties offer.
“We appreciate the FBI and the resources that you gave us to make these arrests,” said Louisville Police Chief Sean Holdiness. “Hopefully, we can get back to normal.”
Although violent crime has decreased over the last three years, the FBI announced the existence of at least 200 gangs operating in Mississippi. They estimate that 20 national gangs are operating in Mississippi today. They include “neighborhood gangs.”
“These neighborhood gangs, they’re younger, they’re not driven wholly by the financial gains that you get from the national gangs,” said Eikhoff.
Eikhoff brought up a shooting that he estimates had over 100 rounds.
“That is what got our attention,” he said.
Mississippi has the highest gun death rate in the United States. The overall gun death rate increased 66% from 2013 to 2022. In October 2024, a federal jury convicted a Mississippi man for trafficking over 60 weapons from Belzoni to Chicago.
No specific number of guns were reported seized yet as part of Operation Summer Heat in Mississippi. In Kentucky’s recent Summer Heat operation, 82 guns were seized.
“The fact that someone’s carrying a weapon in and of itself is something that we have to be very mindful of in terms of constitutional rights,” Eikhoff said.
