Jake Holcomb

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) — A new child protection task force is in the works in Lee County, aimed at streamlining the process of investigating and prosecuting crimes against children. The task force was proposed by District Attorney Jason Herring and Lee County Judge Staci Bevill. The Lee County Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office said child abuse cases can be complicated to prosecute because multiple agencies often have to work together.

DERMA, Miss. (WTVA) — Derma has hired Demarcus Peeples as its new police chief after a search that lasted about a year and a half. Peeples started the job in the Calhoun County town after more than a year without a permanent police chief. Calhoun City’s police chief had been working double duty since last January, also serving in Derma. Peeples said he wants residents to feel safer as he gets started. “This town will feel a whole lot more safer,” he said.

TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) — A group of teenagers and a young adult are in the Lee County jail after police say they took a van from a church near Houston on a multi-county joyride that ended on Father’s Day. Chickasaw County Sheriff Jim Meyers said the joyride spanned from Houston to New Albany and then Tupelo, where law enforcement officers caught them after a short pursuit. The group allegedly broke into the Trinity Outreach Center early Sunday morning.