Mississippi Code
Miss. Code Ann. § 21-21-3 (2026)
Police and night marshals
✓ current as of July 2026
The governing authorities of municipalities shall have the power and authority to employ, regulate and support a sufficient police force or night marshals, to define the duties thereof, and to furnish and supply all suitable and necessary equipment therefor.
Codes, 1892, § 2963; 1906, § 3359; Hemingway's 1917, § 5856; 1930, § 2436; 1942, § 3374-145; Laws, 1950, ch 491, § 145, eff. 7/1/1950.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4
cases, 1998–2019 · leading case: Hooper v. State, 295 F. Supp. 3d 726 (S.D. Miss. 2017).
Hooper v. State, 295 F. Supp. 3d 726 (S.D. Miss. 2017). “See Miss. Code Ann. § 21-21-3 ("The governing authorities of municipalities shall have the power and authority to employ, regulate and support a sufficient police force or night marshals, to define the duties thereof, and to furnish and supply all suitable and necessary…”
Moore v. City of Louisville, 716 So. 2d 1136 (Miss. Ct. App. 1998). “” Miss. Code Ann. § 21-21-3 (Rev.1990). This police power extends so far as to give municipalities authority to set the speed limit on the portion of a state highway that lies'within *1138 a municipality.”
Patterson v. City of Greenville, 117 So. 3d 630 (Miss. 2013). “§ 21-21-1; Miss.Code Ann. § 21-21-3 (Rev.2007). Clearly, a municipality is statutorily obligated to provide police protection to all of its citizens pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated section 21-21-3.”
Sockwell v. Town of Calhoun City (N.D. Miss. 2019). “” Miss. Code Ann. § 21-21-3 (Rev. 1950). A series of Mississippi Attorney General’s opinions have described this authority and make clear that while the Police Chief is entrusted to supervise the daily operations of the police force, hiring and firing authority of patrol…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.