Meridian school safety officer wins statewide award
Published 8:29 pm Friday, August 28, 2026
When you meet School Safety Officer James Miles you will notice he is humble and unassuming, little would you know he recently received the highest honor in the state for those in his profession.
In July Miles was honored by the Mississippi Association of School Resource Officers as the School Safety Officer of the year for the 2025-2026 school year. In August, Miles was recognized for this achievement by the Meridian Public School District’s Board of Trustees.
Miles, who said he has worked for the district for almost three years said he was totally shocked when he heard his name called during the MASRO’s annual convention in Biloxi last month.
“I didn’t know I had been nominated,” Miles said, noting that he is still in shock from being honored in this way.
“It is a great honor,” Miles said. “I just appreciate being nominated. It is a testament to Chief (Cornelius) Parks and his crew. There were at least three to four other people in the district who could have gotten this award.”
Miles said that while he is greatly honored by the award, he looks at his commitment to his job as just being an example of how he was raised.
“I appreciate the recognition and the accolades,” he said. “I am humbled by it.”
MPSD Campus Police Chief Cornelius Parks, who nominated Miles, said that he is an exemplary employee. Parks said Miles has an extremely strong work ethic and described him as a happy-go-lucky guy who is well liked by his peers, district staff and students.
“Overall I am extremely proud that someone from our district could win this award,” Parks said during an interview this week.
In winning the award, Miles won the honor over school safety officers in the larger communities throughout the state. Parks said there are 39 school districts in the state that, like Meridian, have their own police departments.
Parks said school safety officers are the security guards for the district. They work to help keep the district’s individual campuses safe and are tasked with vetting all visitors. Parks said that each of the district’s nine campuses have an SSO. Parks said the only difference between SSOs and school resource officers is in the police power. Unlike SROs, SSOs cannot conduct arrests.
Miles works primarily in the district’s central office and in addition to keeping security and vetting visitors to the facility, he helps to protect staff at the district’s main office.
Prior to becoming a SSO, Miles said he worked for 35 years for UPS. He retired from that job, but found that retirement wasn’t quite for him, so when he saw the opportunity to continue to serve he jumped at it.
Miles said the thing he likes most about the position is the people. He said he enjoys making people feel safe and he really enjoys working with students and providing a positive impact on their lives.
He did say that in winning an award like this it does add a little pressure.
“You want to do better, you want to continue to do the things that you have been doing,” he said.
