(This is the first in a multi-part series see all parts of the saga here.)
MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST — Across Mississippi, cities looking for innovative ways to crack down on uninsured motorists turned to Securix LLC. What started as a promising solution quickly unraveled into a series of questionable deals, secretive arrangements, and mounting controversies involving public officials.
From Ocean Springs, where the program’s collapse left lingering questions about conflicts of interest, to Biloxi, where the deal ended abruptly without public notification, the story of Securix is shrouded in secrecy and unanswered questions.
As more details emerge about the company and its operations, the full scope of its dealings raises troubling questions about transparency, ethics, and the costs borne by Mississippi cities.
City Official ‘Profited Greatly’ from Securix Deal
Securix is a private company, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company’s technology provides automated systems designed to identify and penalize uninsured motorists. At its core, the service involves installing cameras capable of reading license plates and cross-referencing them with state insurance databases. Drivers flagged as uninsured are mailed citations, with fines of $300 or more and the threat of driver’s license suspension.
The system was first pitched to Ocean Springs in 2021. The presentation was made to the Board of Alderman by Ocean Springs’ City Attorney Robert Wilkinson and then Police Chief Marc Dunston. But as Ward 2 Alderman Rickey Authement revealed, the Board was never informed that Wilkinson had a financial stake in the program — a revelation that came as a shock even to former Mayor Shea Dobson, who served at the time of inception.
As City Attorney, Robert Wilkinson’s role is to provide impartial legal guidance to city officials, ensuring their decisions comply with the law and protect the public’s interest. This position requires a high standard of trust and ethical conduct, as Wilkinson’s guidance directly influences city policies and contracts. If Wilkinson personally profited from a deal he pitched and legally advised on, such as the Securix contract, it would represent a clear conflict of interest, undermining his duty to serve the city without personal bias or financial gain.
“Nobody knew — I found out when I read the article,” Authement said, referring to an Ocean Springs Weekly Record expose that broke the news in December 2024. “If [Wilkinson] had something to do with it, he should have told us then.”
Jonathon Miller, Chairman of Securix LLC, revealed details of just how financially connected Wilkinson was to the deal. “Wilkinson and his partners got most of the profits,” he stated. Miller says Wilkinson partnered with Josh Gregory and Quinton Erickson, owners of Frontier Strategies, a politically connected firm that manages aspects of Mayor Kenny Holloway’s reelection campaign.
“Wilkinson profited greatly,” Miller added. “The more tickets that were issued, the more he and his partners made. They ended up getting almost all of the Securix net profits.”
Miller says Wilkinson “played both sides,” using legal advice to steer city officials into the deal and then personally profiting from each traffic citation paid by motorists.
Approval Behind Closed Doors
From its start in Ocean Springs, the program was shrouded with secrecy and encountered a slew of problems upon its rollout.
The debate to decide whether to contract with Securix was held in “executive session,” a private meeting closed off from the public’s ears. While these types of closed meetings are common, Mississippi state law limits the topics that can be discussed behind the backs of residents. These types of private talks are usually limited to litigation discussions and personnel issues. A city entering into a contract with a new vendor is typically not one of the topics that rises to the level of needing secrecy.
According to minutes acquired through a public records request, the Ocean Springs Board of Aldermen voted unanimously in May of 2021 “to authorize the Mayor to execute the contract with Secure X [sic] Systems.” The contract split money from citations 50-50, with one half going to the city and the other going to Securix. Later, Miller would allege “nearly all” of the Securix net profits went into the pockets of Wilkinson and his partners.
A Rollout Filled with Problems
In August, the Board voted to authorize the hiring of two part-time safety officers to serve as validators of citations being mailed. The authorization, hidden in the meeting’s consent agenda, stated the officers would be “paid by Securix.”
By mid-2022, the program was off and running, under the supervision of Mayor Kenny Holloway. It was immediately met with challenges, including a class action lawsuit claiming Securix violated federal and state laws by issuing unlawful citations to motorists in Ocean Springs, resulting in financial harm and due process violations.
Over the next several months, a myriad of complaints by residents and visitors began to emerge. Alderman Authement says he brought the “red flags” to the Board in March of 2023, citing the following:
- Erroneous Citations: Motorists with valid insurance, particularly military veterans insured through USAA, were mistakenly cited.
- Court Illusions: Tickets falsely indicated court dates, creating confusion and pressure for individuals to pay $300 fines to avoid supposed legal consequences.
- Conflicts of Interest: Authement flagged the involvement of Wilkinson’s son, Alexander, as the program’s local operations director. “It was not a good look,” Authement noted.
- Legal Risks: The city’s potential exposure to liability in a class action lawsuit further pushed the Authement to recommend discontinuing the contract.
The official notes from that private meeting, also acquired by public records request, state a motion was made by Alderman Authement “and unanimously carried to authorize the Mayor to retain independent counsel to research the Securix contract to determine if the City will remain in contract.”
Money from Fines Did Not Go to Ocean Springs
Several weeks later, the Board voted to officially end the program and issue a 90 day termination notice to Securix. During this time, Authement says the city decided not to take any of the money issued by citations that continued to be issued.
“We told them to take our logo off of their letters,” he stated. “We told them they can continue to collect everything that was out there and that we didn’t want any part of what was left.”
Securix continued issuing citations during the 90-day wind-down period, informing motorists that failure to pay could lead to license suspension. None of the $300 fines collected during this period were allocated to the city. Instead, all the proceeds went directly to the private company. According to the Securix Chairman, just like when the city was splitting proceeds, the bulk of the net profits from these collections went directly into the pockets of Wilkinson and partners.
Compounding the controversy, Mayor Kenny Holloway made a statement to WXXV on May 24, 2023, saying, “They’re still sending out citations. I wouldn’t say it’s a requirement, but it’s encouraged by Securix to come into the program and pay.” However, Holloway failed to disclose to the public that there were no penalties for nonpayment and that the city would not see a single dollar of the revenue.
This omission has raised further questions about the transparency of the program’s termination and who stood to gain. During that final three month phase, those being ticketed were not informed the city of Ocean Springs would not receive a dime of the fines they were demanded to pay.
Authement says the city decided to hold on to all money collected by the program, in case future legal action results in claw backs. According to him, the city is holding $470,000 in an account.
Conflicting Reports About Wilkinson
In April of 2022, The Dispatch, a local newspaper serving Columbus, Mississippi, reported the city was considering entering a deal with Securix. The article also revealed Wilkinson was part of Securix’s traveling sales team, used to entice other municipalities to sign up.
The paper wrote, “Attorney Robert Wilkinson, who represents Securix, and who also is the city attorney for Ocean Springs, explained that the system captures tag numbers and compares them to a national insurance database to see if the driver is insured.”
The Dispatch went on to say, “Wilkinson explained he has recused himself from any matters involving Securix and Ocean Springs, which uses the program.” This statement, if true, would contradict Alderman Authement’s statement that nobody in the Ocean Springs city government knew of Wilkinson’s ties to Securix. Perhaps the answer lies in city documents.
While Wilkinson may have told colleagues hundreds of miles from home that he had recused himself from using his position to give Securix advice to officials, documents obtained by public records request show a different story.
The City Clerk’s office provided details of five Board of Alderman meetings in which Securix was discussed. Wilkinson is listed as presiding over three of those meetings in his official role as City Attorney. The remaining two were presided over by attorney Will Norman, who is employed by Wilkinson at a private law firm. These details are in direct contradiction to statements made by Wilkinson while promoting Securix on the road.
As for the City of Columbus, the city council voted 5-1 to implement the Securix program in April of 2022, but the vote was vetoed by Mayor Keith Gaskin. “Every person who drives a vehicle should have insurance, per state law,” Gaskin’s statement read. “However, fining a driver for lack of such insurance will not likely result in the purchase of more insurance policies.”
Wilkinson Deflects, Files Court Action Immediately
When asked to comment on the allegations that he profited from the Securix deal, Wilkinson deflected the focus towards Miller. Before hearing what the accusations were, Wilkinson began asserting that Miller lied. In fact, Wilkinson never allowed the allegations to be told to him. Instead, he spent the bulk of the conversation attacking Miller’s mental health and accusing Miller of being in breach of a gag order.
Miller denied Wilkinson’s assertions, stating that he is not prohibited from speaking about the Ocean Springs deal. “There is no gag order preventing me from discussing that agreement,” Miller said. “The claim about my mental health is completely made up, likely as an excuse to seal the case.”
The case the two gentlemen are speaking of stems from corporations formed after the demise of the Ocean Springs Securix fiasco. Those new corporations are at the heart of a new saga that unfolded with Ocean Springs’ neighboring city of Biloxi.
Roughly ten minutes after the conversation with Wilkinson concluded, Miller reached out to disclose that Wilkinson had filed a fresh complaint in court, accusing him of violating the gag order by discussing prohibited topics. Miller, who lives in Georgia, was served with an order mandating his presence in Jackson County Chancery Court before Judge Neal Harris on Monday morning. Miller asserted that the action was unwarranted, maintaining that none of the topics discussed pertained to the sealed court case.
The motion stating that Miller was in contempt for what he told this reporter was odd, given the fact that Wilkinson never gave the opportunity to hear or address the allegations Miller had raised against him.
The Fallout Is Just Beginning
The controversies surrounding Securix’s dealings with Ocean Springs expose a troubling lack of transparency and accountability in the management of public programs. From undisclosed conflicts of interest to questionable and city officials personally profiting to business practices, these revelations raise more questions than answers.
The biggest question on the minds of many residents is: Will Ocean Springs officials call for an investigation into Miller’s allegations that their City Attorney used his position to line his own pockets?
New Deal for Biloxi, Same Fate
Coming later this week: The next chapter in this saga uncovers how Wilkinson and his partners rebranded their troubled program under a new company name, sold it to Biloxi with promises of success, and watched as it unraveled in a strikingly familiar fashion.
