When most folks consider Mike Chaney’s job as Mississippi’s insurance commissioner, it’s a sure bet they probably never think of firetrucks and sex-trafficking stings.
On Tuesday, Chaney, now in his eighth year on the job, used both during his appearance before the Columbus Rotary Club at Lion Hills Center to illustrate that his office handles far more than insurance matters.
“We do a lot of things besides insurance,” Chaney said, noting that his office led the fight to make sure fire rebates on insurance remained a special fund solely dedicated to supporting the state’s firefighters after an effort to sweep that money into the state’s general fund two years ago.
The result of Chaney’s successful effort has returned $4.5 million to the fire department fund, $4 million of which will go to helping purchase fire trucks for volunteer fire departments throughout the state.
“Somebody that will risk their lives for people they don’t know, that’s a pretty big deal to me,” Chaney said. “We need to make sure these firefighters have good equipment.”
Chaney said the benefits go far beyond the firefighters themselves.
With each rating point, insurance premiums double, he said.
“In Columbus … you pay $600,” he said. “Move out to a place where there’s a (lesser) rating, it doubles. Go out to where you are out of range of a fire truck … and it’s four times higher. People talk about tax cuts that have been going on, but nothing has a bigger impact on the average person than this.”
Chaney’s role in helping bust up sex-trafficking came as a result of additional duties his office picked up a few years ago, he said.
“We took over the licensing of bail bond agents,” he said. “It was a mess, but we’ve worked hard to straighten it out.”
Chaney said his office established a bail agent registry to bring some accountability to the profession.
Every bail bondsman is now required to register. Those who refuse have their license pulled and are subject to fines up to $10,000.
The registry data base tracks each agent’s bails, how much they are, what crime they are issued for, the name of the judge the case is assigned to and where their client was booked.
“Judges love it,” Chaney said. “Sheriffs love it. Bail agents didn’t like it. If I wind up dead, it’s probably a bail agent.”
The sex-trafficking enforcement evolved from that, too.
“Several years ago, the FBI came to us and said, ‘We’ve got a problem. Bail agents are running these white slavery rings, drug rings, prostitution, you name it. Can you do something about it?'” Chaney said.
Chaney’s office soon discovered the link between unscrupulous bail bond agents and those illegal operations.
“What you would have is some college kid would run up several thousands of dollars in parking tickets, fines and things like that,” Chaney said. “When they were arrested, there were some bond agents that would step in and bond them out. Then, when the student couldn’t pay, the bond agent would say you can pay it off on the couch, or by driving this car to San Antonio and back, using them to run drugs or transport illegal aliens.”
Chaney said the FBI used his office’s database to identify and track those agents’ patterns.
“They’ve been able to use this to identify and arrest these people in 48 states,” Chaney said.
“The whole idea was to bring some rhyme and reason to the bail bond business,” Chaney said. “As it’s turned out, it’s had an impact far beyond what we imagined.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.