City of Hattiesburg/Forrest County Edward Byrne Memorial JAG Program

The City of Hattiesburg is applying on behalf of the City of Hattiesburg and Forrest County for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program FY 2024 Local Solicitation.  The title of the project is “City of Hattiesburg and Forrest County Byrne JAG Program FY 2024.”  The City of Hattiesburg and Forrest County are seeking to use funds for the purchase of equipment to improve the existing capabilities of the Hattiesburg Police Department and Forrest County Sheriff’s Department. 

The City of Hattiesburg will purchase one (1) Kawasaki Mule Pro-FXT 1000LE side by side for a total cost of $17,701.20.

The Kawasaki Mule Pro-FXT 1000LE’s utility bed and two rows of bench seats will provide the department additional means of transporting supplies and/or injured citizens at parades or in natural disasters. This vehicle will also allow officers to rapidly respond to areas where larger vehicles are not feasible. Two of our department ATVs have become inoperable due to old age and excessive use. The addition of this ATV will help to provide wider coverage at large community events.

Forrest County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) intends to purchase three (3) Forensic Workstations, priced at $3,003.30, for a total of $9,009.90. FCSO also intends to purchase three (3) 20 TB external hard drives, priced at $323.99 each, for a total of $971.97.

FCSO seeks to replace the computer systems currently in use by our Criminal Investigations Division (CID). The aging hardware has begun to exhibit significant performance problems, including slower processing speeds, frequent crashes, and insufficient memory. These issues are impacting our productivity and the efficiency with which we handle and analyze critical evidence.

As our investigations increasingly rely on digital evidence—such as high-resolution videos, photographs, and data from mobile devices—the limitations of our current systems are becoming more pronounced. The slow processing speeds and inadequate graphics capabilities of our existing workstations are struggling to manage complex forensic software and large datasets effectively.

Moreover, our current systems lack sufficient external storage solutions, which are critical for managing and archiving the vast amounts of data we collect. The absence of adequate external storage is exacerbating the challenges we face with data management, leading to potential delays in accessing and analyzing evidence, and risking data integrity.