Biloxi chief elected head of Southeastern group

Biloxi Police Chief John Miller, who has led Biloxi’s department for nine of his 28 years with the city, has been elected chairman of the Regional Organized Crime Information Center, an agency that serves a network of 1,400 law enforcement agencies across the Southeast and in U.S. territories.

The ROCIC is one of six such Regional Information Sharing Systems that shares criminal information and services. This region, which has headquarters in Nashville, serves Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

ROCIC and the RISS Program offer law enforcement agencies and officers a full range of services, from the beginning of an investigation to the ultimate prosecution and conviction of criminals. ROCIC provides services and resources that directly impact law enforcement’s ability to successfully resolve criminal investigations and prosecute offenders, while promoting officer safety.

“This agency is about better law enforcement,” said Miller, who joined in 2008 and was a board member and vice president before being named chairman last week. “It provides a wealth of services that some departments might not be able to afford – some law enforcement agencies are as few as 10 people — and it also shares information and services for all law enforcement agencies. When it’s something cutting edge, like when a new drug hits the streets, this is the agency that will spread the information among all law enforcement agencies. They get it first.”

John Miller, who formed the Biloxi Police Department’s own intelligence unit since he became chief, was nominated to become Biloxi police chief by Mayor A.J. Holloway in 2009. At the time, Miller was a 19-year veteran of the department and head of the Biloxi Police Department’s Special Crimes and Criminal Investigations units.

Mayor Andrew “FoFo” Gilich kept Miller and other city department directors when he was elected mayor in a special election in 2015 and again in 2017.

Miller, a Coast native, joined the Biloxi Police Department in 1990 as a patrol officer, and five years later was named to the department’s Special Crimes Unit, where he earned the ranks of sergeant and lieutenant. Before being named chief, he was a captain and had headed the Special Crimes Unit since 1996, and in 2009 he also assumed command of the department’s Criminal Investigations Division.

Miller has also served as the department’s critical incident commander and oversaw the department’s federal equitable sharing and drug-forfeiture accounts. In 2008, Miller launched a cold case squad in the Biloxi Police Department, which has seen the successful prosecution of individuals in previously unsolved crimes.

Miller was selected as Officer of the Year by civic groups in 1993, won medals of merit and valor for his efforts during Hurricane Katrina, was named first in his class at the University of Tennessee’s Southeastern Command and Leadership Academy in 2006, and has been recognized repeatedly by the Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Non-violence, earning the agency’s Law Enforcement Victim Advocate Award.
Learn more about the Regional Organized Crime Information Center
See the resources of the ROCIC