Private business ticketed uninsured Mississippi vehicle owners. Then the program blew up. ...Middle East

Politically connected members of a Mississippi company have fallen out with their Georgia partner in what promised to be a profitable business to snare uninsured motorists with cameras and artificial intelligence. 

A company that the three Mississippians formed, QJR LLC, is suing its partner in the uninsured motorist ticketing venture, Georgia-based Securix LLC. QJR represents the first initials of its members: Quinton Dickerson, Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson.

Dickerson and Gregory are Republican political operatives in Jackson who have run numerous state and local campaigns and advise many of the state’s top elected officials. Wilkinson, a Coast attorney, has represented local governments and government agencies.

But Judge Neil Harris has sealed the case, leaving the public in the dark about the specifics. Mississippi Today has filed a motion in the case, arguing that the file should be opened to the public.

An attorney representing the three Mississippians said in a document submitted in federal court, where the case was temporarily moved, “The case involves highly sensitive issues implicating local officials, reputational harm, and ongoing injunctive relief.”

The uninsured motorist program that Securix brought to Mississippi proved contentious from the start. In Ocean Springs, some vehicle owners were angry when they learned artificial intelligence had been used to ticket them for driving without insurance.

The Securix program has resulted in several lawsuits, including one in federal court that accuses Securix of deceiving vehicle owners by essentially posing as a law enforcement agency through its mailed citations in Ocean Springs. By April 2023, the city had canceled its contract with Securix LLC.

And there is the secret Chancery Court file. A January 2025 transcript in federal court hints that politics are involved in the chancery case and also describes what that lawsuit is about.

The transcript says the Mississippians, operating as QJR LLC, are suing Securix in Chancery Court for defamation.

“They (QJR) want to stop the defamation from ruining political careers,” an attorney for Securix said. “That’s their argument.”

The chancery lawsuit, the federal transcript says, also seeks to dissolve Securix Mississippi LLC,  a 50-50 partnership QJR and Securix formed to spread the program to other cities.

Securix attempted to move the Chancery Court case to federal court, but a federal judge ruled in January that he didn’t have jurisdiction and returned it to Chancery Court. 

The federal transcript says Securix Mississippi pulled in $1.3 million in a year through uninsured motorist citations but, at the time of the hearing, had less than $75,000 in assets. The judge also noted that “revenue has fallen off a cliff since August of 2024 for Securix Mississippi LLC.”

August 2024 also happens to be when the Department of Public Safety pulled the plug on the program, DPS records show.

DPS Commissioner Sean Tindell, whose agency oversees uninsured motorist enforcement, had reservations from the start about a private company ticketing motorists. Complaints about how the program was being operated, he said, prompted him to cut off Securix’s access to the data it needed to determine whether a vehicle was insured.

While QJR was successful in getting the chancery case sealed, the company had no such luck when it tried to have the federal transcript closed from public view.

A federal magistrate judge ruled on QJR’s motion to seal the transcript, citing federal court cases that said: “The public’s right of access to judicial proceedings is fundamental,” and, “Judicial records belong to the American people; they are public, not private, documents.”

Uninsured motorist program launches in MS

Securix LLC was incorporated in Delaware in 2018 and signed its first Mississippi contract in May 2021 with Shea Dobson, then the mayor of Ocean Springs, after approval by the Board of Aldermen.

Securix, based in Georgia, uses automatic license plate readers, usually mounted on traffic signals, to capture images of license plates. With the help of artificial intelligence, Securix can extract license plate numbers from the images. 

Jonathan Miller, an owner of Securix LLC, initially came to Mississippi and talked to Ocean Springs Police Chief Mark Dunston about the program, said Dunston, who has since retired. Dunston presented the program to the Board of Aldermen, he said, and was later paid by Securix to present the program in other cities during off hours and after his retirement.

It is unclear when Miller met Josh Gregory and Quinton Dickerson, who did not want to comment for the story because the Chancery Court case is sealed. Miller, the chairman of Securix LLC, is also a named defendant in QJR’s lawsuit. He also declined to comment about matters involving the litigation. 

Gregory and Dickerson both worked on former Gov. Haley Barbour’s 2003 political campaign, then formed Ridgeland-based Frontier Strategies. Gregory was a top political adviser to former Gov. Phil Bryant. 

Billed as a full-service advertising agency, Frontier landed a lucrative state contract shortly after Barbour took office in 2004, within six months of the company’s formation. The company has gone on to contract with other state agencies and work on state and local political campaigns.

The third member of QJR, Robert Wilkinson, was serving as city attorney for Ocean Springs when Dobson signed its Securix contract. Wilkinson said he met Miller at that time but they did not have a business relationship until six to 10 months after Ocean Springs signed on with Miller’s company.

Wilkinson said he was impressed with the Securix program because it added cameras in the city that could also alert law enforcement officers to crimes, such as kidnappings or wanted suspects on the loose.

“That’s why everyone was fired up,” he said.

Another reason some welcomed the program is because Mississippi has a high rate of uninsured drivers, according to the nonprofit Insurance Research Council. In 2023, the latest year for which statistics were available, the institute reported that Mississippi had the highest rate of uninsured drivers in the nation at 28.2%.

“Unisured motorists in Mississippi is a big problem and I think we need to do more to solve that issue,” DPS Commissioner Tindell said.

“It does create a situation where everybody has to pay more for insurance because there are so many people without it.”

Vehicle owners sue Securix

Securix used its program to identify and ticket the owners of uninsured vehicles, federal court records show. Data on insured motorists was essential to the program.

Under state law, Tindell’s office maintains the Mississippi Vehicle Insurance Verification System — bulk data on the state’s insured motorists that is regularly updated. DPS operates and maintains the system through third-party vendor HDI Solutions Inc.

Law enforcement officers use the system all the time. When they run a license plate, the system lets an officer know if the vehicle is insured. But agencies generally do not have access to HDI’s bulk data.

Initially, Commissioner Tindell was unwilling to commit his agency — and its HDI data — to the Securix program. 

“I don’t know that it’s necessarily the best policy to privatize our court system with diversion programs,” Tindell said. “I think those are government functions.”

Tindell also questioned whether a camera could be used to issue a ticket to an uninsured driver. State law says law enforcement agencies can access the system only during traffic stops and accident investigations. And state law forbids using the system’s insurance information as the only reason for a traffic stop.

He also was unsure whether a city could set up a diversion program through a private company.

For its initial foray into Mississippi with the city of Ocean Springs, Securix reached a data-sharing agreement directly with HDI, a letter from an HDI attorney shows.

“We basically said we’re not going to object to it,” Tindell said, “but that’s something y’all need to work out yourselves.”

With access to insured driver data, Securix began sending out citations from its Ocean Springs cameras.

If a vehicle was not listed as being insured, a ticket went to the owner. The system did not identify the person driving the vehicle.

On their face, the citations claimed to be uniform traffic tickets that, at first glance, appeared to be from the police department. 

Soon enough, Securix faced a federal lawsuit filed by three Mississippi residents ticketed as uninsured motorists. 

They are seeking class-action status to represent thousands of individuals who they believe received citations from Securix. In just a few months, the lawsuit says, 6,000 people were ticketed in Ocean Springs alone.

“Pretending to be law enforcement,” the lawsuit says,”defendant (Securix LLC) has made millions of dollars collecting fees from individuals who allegedly violated state uninsured vehicle laws.”

In a response filed in federal court, Securix denies any wrongdoing, saying the company “at all times acted in good faith” and followed state law.

The Ocean Springs citation offered three options: Call a toll-free number and provide proof of insurance, enter a diversion program that charges a $300 fee and includes a short online course and requires agreement that the vehicle will not be driven uninsured on public roadways, or contest the ticket in court and risk $510 in fines and fees, plus the potential of a one-year driver’s license suspension.

Court fight over uninsured motorist data

After signing the contract in Ocean Springs, Securix LLC began working with Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson to sign up other cities.

Company leaders convinced Pearl, Biloxi and Senatobia to join the program.  

Josh Gregory and Robert Wilkinson pitched the program in Senatobia, March 2022 minutes from the Board of Aldermen’s meeting show. Gregory told aldermen that 70% of the public response to the program was positive in Ocean Springs.

Senatobia even took the Department of Public Safety to Circuit Court, filing a lawsuit in Tate County that demanded access to the state agency’s insured driver data.

By the time the city and DPS reached a settlement agreement in August of 2023, HDI had cut off Securix’s access to insured driver data. 

An HDI attorney sent Securix LLC a default notice in December 2022. An HDI review showed Securix personnel issued citations in Ocean Springs without first having a police officer run the license plate information through the insurance verification system, a contract requirement, the notice said. 

The notice required Securix LLC to submit a corrective action plan and document the company’s future contract compliance.

In March 2023, HDI terminated its agreement with Securix LLC. The termination letter said Securix had failed to respond to the notice of termination or submit a corrective action plan. Securix, through chairman Jonathan Miller, later maintained that an Ocean Springs police officer, not the company, authorized each citation.

Months later, the Securix settlement agreement with DPS stipulated that HDI would be authorized to once again provide Securix access to the insurance verification system.

Senatobia came to count on the revenue, board meeting minutes show. But the program would not last — in Senatobia or any other Mississippi city.

Securix program falls apart

In early August 2024, Tindell received a letter from Jonathan Miller of Securix LLC that raised questions about the way the program was operating, Tindell said.

“Based upon his letter, we had concerns that there wasn’t a proper law enforcement control system in place,” he said.

Tindell sent HDI a letter at the end of the same month that mentioned questions had been raised about the Securix program. Tindell asked HDI to “immediately discontinue sharing or providing data relating to any programs involving Securix or QJR.”

QJR filed its lawsuit to dissolve the company less than a month later. In the civil litigation, QJR is also alleging Miller has defamed the Mississippi business partners, which Miller has denied.

Although the chancery case is sealed, Securix and Securix Mississippi have been unable to avoid publicity.  E. Brian Rose, managing editor of the website GCWire and a former congressional candidate, has written numerous pieces about Securix’s business deals. 

But access to the Chancery Court file could give the public more information about the automatic license plate reading business.

In its motion to unseal the file, Mississippi Today attorney Henry Laird asks Harris to hold a hearing that gives the news outlet a chance to argue the file should be opened, as case law has established.

At the hearing, Harris would also need to consider alternatives to closing the file.

“Even if the on-the record-evidence would be so compelling so as to allow the court to redact specific documents or place them under seal,” Laird argues in his motion, quoting a pertinent case, that ‘does not warrant sealing the entire case  from public view’.”

This article was produced in partnership between the Sun Herald and Mississippi Today.

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