Sergeant Chris Russell has been named Interim Chief of the Alexandria Police Department.
The action was taken during Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Alexandria Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Sergeant Russell, who has worked in the department for nine years, will be filling the position being left vacant by Chief Mark Collins whose last day is Friday, November 20.
Collins has been hired as Smithville Police Chief and will be taking that job as of Monday, November 23.
While Sergeant Russell will be interim chief for the time being, he is expected to get the job but not until after the mayor and aldermen have a meeting with Russell in a workshop to let him know what they expect of him and the police department. That workshop is set for next Tuesday, November 24 at 6:00 p.m. at city hall. A special meeting may then be scheduled for a later date to name a new chief.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Alderman John Suggs praised Sergeant Russell for his job performance with the department and recommended him to become the next police chief. “It’s my opinion that Chris should be our new police chief. He knows what’s going on around here. He knows where the bad spots are at. He knows everybody in town and just about everybody knows him. I sat down with Mark (Collins) about a week ago and he told me that Chris is more than qualified for this and he has already handled a lot of stuff for Mark. He knows how to do it and what’s going on. Just a little food for thought because we’re going to need a new police chief,” said Alderman Suggs.
Alderman Matt Boss later made a motion to name Russell Chief. The motion received a second.
But Alderman Danny Parkerson asked that a workshop be held first. “We need to have a workshop before we do anything permanently and decide the future of our police department. I have a lot of people complaining about not having anybody (police officer) on duty during the night. I think we need to have an outline of what (we expect) and I’m perfectly willing for Chris to be it (Police Chief). But I don’t want him to accept something and then we do something that he is dead set against. I think we need to give him some parameters of what we expect in our police department and how we’re going to take care of the people of Alexandria. I think we may even ought to have a public hearing to give the people of Alexandria a chance to voice their concerns. We just need to make sure we have an understanding of what we want and then we can bring in whoever to talk to before the whole council and ask him if he will accept that (job) with this outline of what we expect,” said Alderman Parkerson.
Alderman Boss later withdrew his motion and made a new one for Russell to become interim chief until after the workshop. Boss’ motion was seconded and approved by the aldermen.
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