Thursday, July 24, 2014

Bailiffs carry & use guns- even if not qualified.

Deputy Jay Legget shoots the test
Hinds County bailiffs carry and can use firearms even if they fail their weapons qualifications test.   Sheriff Tyrone Lewis forbids any deputy to carry a weapon if he fails qualification.  However, Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green barred the Sheriff from demoting or firing any bailiff in a 2012 court order.  The dispute is pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court.  Jackson Jambalaya obtained the 2013 and 2014 weapons qualifications records for all Hinds County deputies through a public records request. They are posted below.


Bailiffs are deputies assigned to provide security in the county courthouses.  Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey and Madison County Sheriff Randy Tucker each said that all bailiffs in their counties are qualified to use firearms.  They said any deputy who can't qualify at the shooting range loses the right to carry a firearm until he passes the test.   Both Sheriffs cited liability concerns for the policy. Sheriff Tucker said if one sees a bailiff in the courthouse carrying a firearm, that bailiff is qualified to use that firearm. 



Three bailiffs failed to qualify with their sidearms last year and this year.  Deputy Joyce Harper was the worst offender.  The bailiff is assigned to Circuit Judge Winston Kidd. She shot a 31 in 2013 and a 48 and 49 in 2014.  Deputies must shoot a 75 score out of 100 possible points to pass (A video of a complete live-fire demonstration of the test is posted above. The test is the same for all departments.).  Deputy Daisy Taylor passed by one point last year but failed this year as her best score was 64.  Deputies are allowed to retake the test if they fail.  However, the bailiffs do not have to do so as Judge Green took away the Sheriff's right to discipline them if they fail or need additional training.  Thus the bailiffs are carrying weapons and have the right to use them even though they aren't qualified to use them.  The overall results for the bailiffs are:
Click on pic to enlarge
13 bailiffs passed in 2013 while 7 bailiffs passed after failing the first attempt. Three failed and two were excused due to medical reasons.  The scores improved in 2015 as 15 bailiffs qualified on the first attempt while five qualified after failing on the first attempt.  Three bailiffs failed and four were excused due to medical reasons.

Most of the rounds used for the test are shot within a three to seven yard range.  Captain Robert Mahaffey said the deputies only have to shoot seven out of twenty rounds from the fifteen to twenty-five yard range if they hit the target with all of their rounds at the shorter ranges.  Captain Mahaffey also said he takes away a deputy's weapon if he leaves the range without qualifying. The weapon is placed in a vault and returned to the deputy when he qualifies.  He said the bailiffs were not subject to that policy.

 Think the test is hard? Watch the video and see the standards posted below.

click on pic to enlarge
Sheriff Lewis also toughened training standards last year.  Deputies used to shoot at the range only once a year and that was at the annual test.  Deputies now attend refresher training every three months at the shooting range.

Kingfish note: Where does the liability fall if a bailiff misuses a weapon?  The county or the judges? Are they one and the same?

While some bailiffs flunked the test, seventy-six year old Alex McNeil, that is right SEVENTY-DAMN-SIX, passed the test with a score of 88. He was actually mad he didn't shoot higher as he has done so quite frequently in the past.  Of course,  legends gonna legend.

What is also interesting is Judge Green ordered the Board of Supervisors to raise the salary of her bailiffs.  How did Roderick Thompson and Bill Queen do? Roderick flunked last year but did shoot a score of 94 this year.  Bill Queen shot a score of 92 in each test.  Earlier post.

Note: Download pdfs and then use the rotate function




18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good work, KF!

Anonymous said...

Is it sexist to say that the female bailiffs can't shoot for shit, or is the truth an absolute defense to sexism?

Anonymous said...

For anyone who wears a gun for a living this has to be the easiest test you could ever take. You are standing still. The target is static. You have an INSANE amount of time to complete many of the stages. I shot the whole course weak hand and got a 98% and wasn't really trying. No one in LE should be certified till they can at least shoot 90%, and that's being generous.

Anonymous said...

I didn't see SO1 Bryan Bailey name on the qualification.

Anonymous said...

Chuck Norris has nothing on Alex McNeil.

Anonymous said...

For those that do not shoot handguns this is roughly the same as not being able to make a six inch putt on a flat green.

Citizens Arrest said...

Shooting qualification aside, it seems to boil down to Tomie Green actually believing Lewis' employees are HER employees. Any employer but be able to sanction, discipline, train, assign, reassign and terminate his/her employees as he sees fit, unless those personnel actions are shown to be illegally discriminatory. Green seems to be a mental case.

Perhaps until the SC resolves her idiocy to the satisfaction of Lewis, Lewis can simply pull an Andy and allow these people to carry an unloaded gun.

Anonymous said...

Sheriffs are not required to qualify.

Anonymous said...

Shockingly a lot of certified patrol and warrants officers failed. Wonder if they were disciplined.

Anonymous said...

So the head LE officer in a county doesn't have to qualify. Why should anyone have to qualify if the sheriff doesn't have to.

R.W. Spooner said...

4:39, exactly which warrants officers failed?

W. Earp said...

What difference do it make? Obama's new globe-wide rules of engagement call for warning shots anyway.

Anonymous said...

Unqualified personnel allowed to carry firearms? What could possibly go wrong?

Anonymous said...

Of course you wouldn't see Sheriff Bailey on this list. This list is for Hinds county not RANKIN county.

Anonymous said...

If I were Tyrone Lewis I'd tell Miss PrimaDona Green to go jump in a lake. The very court house she hold court in is the sheriff's responsibility as is the protection of it and those that work in it. The bailiffs are his employees as well. The county Sheriff has way more power and authority than most of them will use.

Anonymous said...

In a CQB situation, contact shooting is often the answer. I bet all would qualify if the barrel of their gun was in contact with the paper target...

Kingfish said...

Pretty said that none of the media would jump on this.

Anonymous said...

Sad but not surprising. In a dispute between two members of a politically protected class the MSM advantage will always go to the lesser qualified (or the flat-out loonier in this case) to avoid being called a "racist".

Has she written a poem about the situation yet?



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