'Blues Brother' Aykroyd supports law enforcement, Mississippi

Jackson fell in love with Dan Aykroyd years ago, from his stints on "Saturday Night Live" to roles in the "Blues Brothers," "Ghost Busters," "Dragnet" and other movies.

But it wasn't until a few years ago that Aykroyd first fell in love with Jackson, then here working on the James Brown biopic "Get On Up."

Since then, he's returned, most recently to make appearances at several campaign functions for incumbent Hinds County Sheriff Tyrone Lewis.

"I owe a lot to the state of Mississippi. I made my living in blues music, and I owe a lot to the African-American culture that made my band possible and the great songs that I still sing today," Aykroyd said from a campaign event at Johnny T's in downtown Jackson last week. "I go out with Jimmy Belushi, and we sing from the African-American songbook every time we go out, so I owe this state a lot."

During the filming of "Get On Up," Aykroyd befriended Hinds Deputy Ramos Austin, and the two began to talk about some of the challenges facing local law enforcement. Aykroyd and James Belushi are the national spokesmen for the Blueline Foundation, which helps provide resources to small police departments.

That conversation evolved into Aykroyd being sworn in as a reserve Hinds County deputy in January 2014.

"As I say, I'm not a real L.A. police sergeant, but I played one in a movie. That hardly qualifies me to stand beside the men and women of the Hinds County Sheriff's Department as a front-line professional," Aykroyd said. "But what I can do is use my celebrity to come and speak up for people who inspire me and who I think are going to make the world a better place and that's what I think Sheriff Tyrone Lewis is."

Aykroyd said he's proud to be a part of a team that puts such a focus on community policing.

"That's why here we're less likely to have something happen like in Ferguson, because the officers are identifying with the young people," Aykroyd said. "They take the individual cases and they treat them, and so you have examples of a kid who will do something in elementary school, and maybe a father isn't home so the kid thinks he's going to get away with it, but a deputy will show up and say, 'I heard about that. Why are you doing that?'

"There's a real interest between the officers and the people they're serving, especially the young," he added. "That, to me, is what should be happening all over the country."

Crime is often perpetrated by people who have been abandoned and neglected by society from a young age, which is a major reason he advocates community policing.

"If you can save someone by not discarding them and not abandoning them, and keeping them an active part of the community at that age, then you're going to cut off a lot of the source of crime and inequality," Aykroyd said.

Aykroyd has donated thousands of dollars to the Hinds County Sheriff's Department, including money for new cars and a $10,000 to help get guns off the streets.

"We have rural police departments that call and ask us for laptops. For flashlights. Ballpoint pens, for little things they don't even have the money to buy," added Aykroyd of his work with the Blueline Foundation.

Mississippi has come a long way, Aykroyd said, from the history that people around the country associate with it.

"I believe in the progress that has been made here in civil rights and equality to all men and women. Mississippi can proudly speak of these advances," Aykroyd said. "I see the hope of Jackson, this architecturally beautiful city. You look at these buildings, some of the old buildings, and you say, 'Hey restore them.' You've got cuisine, and chefs from all over North America coming and cooking here. You've got 10 of the best restaurants in North America here in Jackson. So I see progress and I see hope, and we've all got to get behind it."

Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow @TRex21 on Twitter.