TARGET GRAMMAR: NATURAL, How to Become a Police Officer in Mississippi

To become a police officer in Mississippi, you need to meet the Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training’s minimum qualifications, get hired by a law enforcement agency that will run your background investigation, complete a 480-hour basic training academy with passing scores in every subject, and receive your professional certificate from the board. Start to finish, most applicants spend about a year moving through hiring, background, and academy.

Who Sets the Standards

Mississippi law puts every officer’s qualifications under one authority. The Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training, commonly called BLEOST, sets minimum standards for age, education, physical condition, citizenship, and moral character under Mississippi Code 45-6-11.¹ The board also issues the professional certificate you’ll need before you can work as a sworn officer anywhere in the state.

Minimum Qualifications

Before an agency will even consider your application, you have to clear the state baseline:

At least 21 years old.
High school diploma or GED.
United States citizen.
Good physical and mental condition, verified by a licensed physician through both a medical and a psychological evaluation.
No felony convictions, no misdemeanor convictions involving moral turpitude, and no convictions for crimes directly related to law enforcement duties. Guilty pleas, no-contest pleas, pre-trial diversions, and probation for those offenses count the same as convictions.

The character standard reaches further than a rap sheet. BLEOST also considers whether an applicant has engaged in any conduct that would “greatly diminish the public trust in the competence and reliability of a law enforcement officer.”² That gives the board room to look at behavior that never produced a conviction.

Individual departments layer their own requirements on top. A valid driver’s license, residency within a set distance of the agency, and specific vision or hearing thresholds are common additions. Check with the department you want to apply to for anything beyond the state minimums.

Criminal History and Past Drug Use

The criminal disqualifiers are stricter than many applicants expect. Any conviction, guilty plea, no-contest plea, or pre-trial diversion tied to a felony, a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, or a crime directly related to law enforcement duties permanently disqualifies you.²

On the application, you must disclose every criminal offense in writing with supporting court documents. The only exceptions are minor traffic violations with fines under $100, and only if you’ve had fewer than four traffic offenses in the prior 24 months. Drug- or alcohol-related traffic offenses must always be reported, whatever the fine.³

Mississippi’s state rules don’t set a specific lookback period for past drug use. Drug history is evaluated under the broader “good moral character” and “public trust” standard, and individual departments apply their own drug policies during hiring, which vary widely. Honesty matters more than a perfect past. Misrepresenting your history during the background investigation is a faster route to disqualification than the history itself.

Getting Hired and Cleared by an Agency

In Mississippi, the standard path is to get hired by a department first, and the department then puts you through the background investigation and sends you to the academy. The employing agency runs the investigation, and the BLEOST manual sets the floor for what it must include:⁴

Fingerprints submitted to the Criminal Information Center at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety for a criminal records check.
Education verified through official documents confirming your diploma or GED.
Age and citizenship verified with a birth certificate, passport, or other official documents.
Military records reviewed, including your DD Form 214 if you served.
Medical and psychological evaluations completed by a licensed physician. The medical evaluation is only valid for six months, so if academy enrollment slips past that window, you’ll need it updated.

Most agencies also interview personal references, former employers, and neighbors, though those steps aren’t required by the board’s minimum. Plan on several weeks to a few months for the whole investigation.

Basic Training Academy

Once you’re hired, you attend basic training at an accredited law enforcement academy. Mississippi’s basic academy program runs a minimum of 480 hours.⁵ The largest training facility in the state is the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers’ Training Academy (MLEOTA), operated by the Department of Public Safety, but several community colleges also run accredited programs.

BLEOST sets the minimum curriculum. Every academy must include at least two hours of training on identifying and supporting victims of human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation.⁶ The rest of the 480 hours covers criminal law, firearms, defensive tactics, defensive driving, first aid, CPR, and emergency response procedures.

To graduate, you have to hit these minimum scores:

Academic average of 70 percent or higher. Any student who becomes mathematically eliminated during training is dismissed.
Firearms qualification of 75 percent.
Defensive driving, defensive tactics, CPR, and first aid at 80 percent each.

Missing any threshold means you don’t graduate. A student who fails can reapply, but only to the same academy where the training was given.⁷

Who Pays for the Academy

Most recruits attend on their department’s dime. The agency hires you, then sends you to training. Self-sponsorship is possible at MLEOTA, but you still need a Mississippi law enforcement department to recognize you, run your background investigation, and recommend you for attendance. Tuition at MLEOTA is $4,000 per student, with meals at $10 each and lodging at $40 per night for recruits who stay on-site.⁸ If you’re paying out of pocket, budget for room and board over several months of training.

Getting Certified

Mississippi doesn’t use a single standalone licensing exam. Certification comes from the BLEOST board once you’ve met all employment qualifications, cleared the background investigation, and finished the basic academy with passing scores in every category. The board then issues a professional certificate under Mississippi Code 45-6-11.¹

That certificate is the property of the board, not the officer. The board can reprimand the holder, suspend the certificate with conditions, or cancel and recall it entirely if the officer is convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, obtained certification through fraud, or commits other qualifying violations.¹ Losing the certificate ends your authority to work as a law enforcement officer in Mississippi.

Keeping Your Certification

Certification isn’t a one-time achievement. Mississippi Code 45-6-19 requires every officer to complete BLEOST-approved continuing education every year. The statute phased the hours in on a tiered schedule tied to July 1, 2004, and since the five-year mark passed in 2009, the effective requirement for all officers is 24 hours per year.⁹ Chiefs of police have a separate requirement of 20 hours of executive-level courses annually, with first-year chiefs needing 40. Courses can come from an accredited law enforcement academy or from the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police.

Failing to complete or report the required training puts the officer’s agency on administrative hold, and the officer faces potential revocation of certification by the board.¹⁰ The board can grant extensions for good cause, but treat the deadline as firm.

Every certified officer is also bound by the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics in the board’s administrative rules at Chapter 4, Rule 4.4. The oath commits officers to safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent, respect constitutional rights, and enforce the law “without fear or favor, malice or ill will.”¹¹ The code bars officers from letting personal feelings, prejudices, or friendships influence decisions, from using unnecessary force, and from accepting gratuities.

If You’re Already Certified in Another State

Officers coming in from other states may not have to repeat the full 480-hour academy. The board can issue a certificate to an applicant who shows satisfactory completion of law enforcement training in another jurisdiction, or equivalent military training, as long as it’s “equivalent in content and quality” to Mississippi’s program. You’ll still have to pass any diagnostic testing and evaluation the board uses to confirm competency.¹

If you already hold a valid Mississippi certificate and are moving between agencies with a break in service of less than two years, you don’t need to repeat the academy. Your new agency still has to conduct a fresh background investigation and medical and psychological evaluation before putting you to work.⁴

1
Justia. Mississippi Code 45-6-11 – Law Enforcement Officer Qualifications
2
Legal Information Institute. 31 Mississippi Code R 301-2.2 – Policy
3
Mississippi Department of Public Safety. BLEOST Professional Certification Policy and Procedures Manual
4
Legal Information Institute. 31 Mississippi Code R 301-2.3 – Procedures
5
Mississippi Delta Community College. Law Enforcement Training Academy
6
Justia. Mississippi Code 45-6-7 – Powers of Board
7
Mississippi Delta Community College. BLEOST Professional Certification Policy and Procedures Manual
8
Mississippi Department of Public Safety. Class Prices/Frequently Asked Questions
9
Justia. Mississippi Code 45-6-19 – Continuing Education Requirement for Municipal Police Chiefs and Officers
10
Legal Information Institute. 31 Mississippi Code R 301-10.2 – Policy
11
Legal Information Institute. 31 Mississippi Code R 301-4.4 – Law Enforcement Code of Ethics