BILOXI, MS (GC WIRE) – Motorists who received traffic citations in the mail from Biloxi’s controversial Securix uninsured-driver program were instructed to pay a $300 “diversion fee” or appear in municipal court to face license suspension and high court fees — but internal emails show the scheduled “court appearance” was not a court proceeding at all.
Instead, drivers who showed up were directed to meet with an employee of the private company running the ticketing system and told their citations had already been dismissed.
The revelation comes from an internal email obtained by GC Wire describing the program’s first courthouse appearance in Biloxi.
In the message, Securix employee Blake Peters reported that anyone who arrived with their citation was informed the case no longer existed.
“Anyone that attended with their citation was informed that it had been dismissed,” Peters wrote in the March 15, 2024 email.
GC Wire has confirmed that none of the citations tied to the program ever appeared on the Biloxi municipal court docket in the first place. Those who took the threats seriously and paid the diversion fee are now learning they may never have had to do so.
Public Safety Claims Fall Apart
Biloxi officials promoted the Securix program as a public safety initiative designed to reduce the number of uninsured motorists on the road. But the contract between the city and Securix Mississippi contains language suggesting the program may have been driven by financial goals rather than public safety goals.
The system used automated license plate readers to scan passing vehicles and compare them against the state’s insurance verification database. Vehicles flagged as uninsured would then receive citations through the mail.
One clause in the agreement granted Biloxi what amounts to an exclusive enforcement territory along two of the Gulf Coast’s busiest highways.
“During the initial term of the Agreement, Securix agrees it will not contract with any other municipalities or counties on the I-10/I-110 interstates. This condition will remain in effect unless Biloxi terminates the Agreement.”
The clause effectively reserved the interstate corridors for Biloxi’s program, preventing other cities or counties along those highways from flagging uninsured motorists along those stretches – or making money from the program.
Critics say the provision makes little sense for a program supposedly focused on improving road safety.
If the goal was simply to reduce the number of uninsured motorists on Mississippi roads, expanding enforcement across multiple jurisdictions would likely have increased the program’s effectiveness.
Instead, the clause ensured Biloxi maintained exclusive control over citations generated along some of the most heavily traveled roadways on the Gulf Coast – and the money they generated.
Expansion of the Ocean Springs Program
The email relates to operations of Securix Mississippi LLC, a company created after the original Securix enforcement program was launched in Ocean Springs.
Securix Mississippi was structured as a joint venture between the national technology company Securix and a Mississippi-based entity called QJR LLC.
QJR consisted of three politically connected figures who played central roles in bringing the program to Mississippi: Frontier Strategies partners Quinton Dickerson and Josh Gregory, along with Robert Wilkinson, who was serving as Ocean Springs city attorney at the time.
The Ocean Springs deployment served as the pilot program for what organizers hoped would become a statewide expansion using automated license plate recognition cameras to identify vehicles believed to be uninsured.
Biloxi was among the cities where the expanded operation began issuing citations through the mail.
Inside the Email
The March 15, 2024 message was written by Blake Peters, a Securix employee responsible for “Quality Control.”
Peters sent the update to Josh Gregory, with a copy sent to Securix employee Alex Wilkinson, who is the son of Robert Wilkinson and served as the “Director of Operations” for the program.
In the message, Peters described what he called the program’s first Biloxi court appearance.
“The first Biloxi court appearance went very well and was fairly slow,” Peters wrote.
But the next sentence revealed something unusual.
“Anyone that attended with their citation was informed that it had been dismissed.”
In other words, motorists who arrived at the courthouse expecting to contest a criminal citation were simply told the case no longer existed.
A Meeting Window, Not a Court Case
The email also sheds light on what those scheduled appearances actually were.
Peters wrote that he and another Securix employee were present at the courthouse where they interacted with court staff and motorists who arrived with citations.
He also described adjusting the schedule so courthouse staff could conduct other business.
“We had also come to the consensus that Biloxi court will now be 10am–1pm, so that the courthouse can conduct its early business for Offender Review, without us getting in the way of their foot traffic.”
The description suggests the time block was not reserved for judicial hearings but for motorists to meet with company representatives.
Despite the citations instructing motorists to appear in municipal court, GC Wire has verified the cases were never placed on the municipal court docket.
That mirrors patterns previously reported in other cities where the program operated.
In Ocean Springs, more than 10,000 citations were mailed through the Securix system, yet only 23 ever appeared in court records.
Donuts with Dismissals
The email also reveals Securix personnel working closely with local law enforcement and courthouse staff.
Peters wrote that he spoke with Biloxi Police Chief John Miller during the courthouse visit and discussed the unusual action of installing a private company’s payment drop box inside a municipal courthouse.
“He is perfectly fine with a drop box for payments and has given us instructions for how he would prefer the installation,” Peters wrote.
Court staff were also briefed on how to handle questions from motorists.
“There is now a mailbox for returned mail, and the court staff have all been briefed on where to direct question regarding the program,” Peters wrote.
He also noted the informal atmosphere during the courthouse visit.
“Tracy and I spoke and bantered with court staff, and she was kind enough to bring the donuts for today.”
Officers Paid by the Company Issuing the Tickets
GC Wire previously reported that the police officers who reviewed and signed many of the citations in Ocean Springs and other cities were not being paid by the city police department.
Payroll records obtained from Securix show the officers who validated citations were paid directly by the private company running the program.
Those officers were paid roughly $30 per hour to review license plate data and validate citations mailed to motorists suspected of operating vehicles without insurance.
The citations — signed by those officers — informed residents they had been charged with a criminal offense, summoned to municipal court, and warned that failure to act could result in license suspension and significant court fines.
But the $300 diversion fee demanded in the citation was paid directly to the same private company paying the officers.
Securix executives have confirmed to GC Wire that Biloxi operated under the same structure.
Attorney General Warning
The arrangement appears to conflict with longstanding guidance from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
A 2002 opinion warned that sworn officers cannot receive payment from private entities while exercising law enforcement authority.
“There is no authority for individual ‘off-duty’ officers to receive payments from private entities for performing law enforcement functions under color of state law,” the opinion states.
The opinion warned that such practices raise serious questions about liability, private gain from public office, and the legality of the officer’s authority.
Criminal Charges That Never Reached Court
The payment structure becomes even more controversial when combined with what happened to the citations themselves.
During the Ocean Springs program, 10,481 citations were mailed to motorists accusing them of operating vehicles without insurance and threatening criminal penalties.
But sworn responses to a federal court subpoena later revealed that only 23 of those citations were ever filed with the municipal court.
Municipal courts are the only entities legally authorized to impose the penalties threatened in the mailed notices.
The internal Biloxi email now raises the possibility that the same dynamic may have existed there as well.
Same Blake, Different Game
Securix executives have confirmed that the “Blake” referenced in the Biloxi email is the same Blake who later surfaced in another controversial ticketing scheme in Mississippi.
That program, called Intellisafe, was launched by Robert Wilkinson and former Ocean Springs Police Chief Mark Dunston after the Securix program began unraveling.
GC Wire previously reported that the Intellisafe operation functioned in a strikingly similar way. Instead of traditional court proceedings with judicial oversight, motorists who appeared at the courthouse were directed to speak with a company representative.
That representative was often a man named Blake.
‘I’m the Court Liaison‘
One Hattiesburg resident who received an Intellisafe ticket decided to test the process himself.
When he arrived at the courthouse for the date listed on the citation, he was directed not to a judge or courtroom, but to an Intellisafe employee named Blake.
The resident secretly recorded the interaction and later shared the audio with GC Wire.
When the man said he was there to see a judge, Blake corrected him. “I’m the court liaison. You’re here for the options arraignment,” he said.
Blake then laid out the options available to the motorist.
The man could watch a video and pay $230 through the company’s website.
If he refused, Blake warned the citation could be sent to collections, which he said would affect the driver’s credit score.
When the resident continued pressing to see a judge, Blake offered another option.
He could sign a waiver allowing the company to forward the alleged speeding violation to the city.
“Will I then get to see a judge?” the man asked.
Blake’s response was revealing.
“If the city chooses to take action.”
A Private Court Inside a Courthouse
When GC Wire investigated the Intellisafe program in Hattiesburg, a municipal court clerk confirmed the scheme, revealing the court had nothing to do with the tickets despite the city’s name appearing on the citation.
“The municipal court and the police department are on that piece of paper, but we have nothing to do with IntelliSafe,” the clerk said.
The clerk then explained how the program actually operated: “The only thing is they use our lobby for their court.”
In other words, the private company was conducting its own proceedings inside the lobby of a municipal courthouse — without a judge.
Biloxi Denied Program Was Shut Down
Biloxi officials previously dismissed concerns about the Securix program and accused GC Wire of spreading inaccurate information.
During a January 7, 2025 City Council meeting, Councilman Paul Tisdale suggested reports that the system had been suspended were the result of public confusion.
“There seems to be some confusion out there in the general public that this has been discontinued or it’s paused,” Tisdale said. City Attorney Peter Abide went further, claiming GC Wire had no sources and had not filed public records requests.
“I don’t know if they had any sources, they never did a public records request,” Abide said.
In reality, GC Wire had already obtained documents through public records requests showing the program had effectively been shut down. But Abide dismissed the reporting as “some social media sort of animation” that wrongfully suggested the program had been canceled.
Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich echoed the claim, telling the council the Department of Public Safety had “no issue” with the program’s access to the state’s insurance database.
But documents obtained by GC Wire tell a very different story.
On August 29, 2024, the Mississippi Department of Public Safety issued a cease and desist letter ordering HDI Solutions — the contractor responsible for managing the state’s insurance verification database — to immediately stop sharing data with programs involving Securix or QJR.
“DPS asks that HDI immediately discontinue sharing or providing data relating to any programs involving Securix or QJR,” DPS Chief Counsel J. Chadwick Williams wrote in the letter obtained through a public records request.
Without access to that database, the camera system used to identify allegedly uninsured vehicles could no longer function.
Program Collapses Amid Lawsuits
The controversy surrounding the Securix program eventually triggered a bitter split between the companies behind the Mississippi operation.
Securix Mississippi LLC — the joint venture between Securix and QJR LLC — became the subject of a breakup lawsuit filed in Jackson County Chancery Court.
The dispute exposed deep disagreements between the national company and the Mississippi operators over how the system had been run.
Internal communications previously obtained by GC Wire show Securix executives repeatedly warning the Mississippi management team — including Robert Wilkinson, Alex Wilkinson, and Josh Gregory — that several practices being used in the state violated the company’s own standards and potentially the law.
In one message, Securix Chairman Jonathan Miller warned the Mississippi operators the company intended to shut down the system rather than allow those practices to continue.
“We are notifying all current users and shutting down the system prior to eliminating this abuse,” Miller wrote. “We will not allow operations that circumvent the law.”
As the dispute unfolded, filings in the case indicated the Mississippi venture was facing severe financial trouble.
“The fact is that Securix Mississippi will have no funds within the next thirty (30) to sixty (60) days,” QJR attorney Jaclyn Wrigley wrote in a court filing.
The collapse of the partnership effectively ended the Securix enforcement program in Mississippi.
However, the legal fallout from the system continues.
Several motorists flagged by the camera network have a filed federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the citations and the enforcement process used by the program. That case remains pending.
And now, those who paid the fee in Biloxi are learning they never had to do that. Simply showing up to their “court date” would have resulted in Blake dismissing the case.
