NATCHEZ, Miss. – The mayor and city aldermen continued their closed-door discussions Wednesday about who should take Natchez Police Chief Joseph Daughtry’s place when he resigns at the end of the month.
Mayor Dan Gibson said he and aldermen privately interviewed three “excellent candidates” who currently work in the Natchez Police Department: patrol commander Justin Jones, community services commander Cal Green and shift supervisor Jerry Ford.
Wednesday’s two-hour series of interviews were closed to the public. State law allows government boards to hold such meetings to discuss people’s job performance, character or competence.
As they try to decide who should serve as interim chief, city officials are “very pleased with the talent we have within our own Natchez Police Department,” Gibson said. This makes it a “very difficult decision” to determine which one to appoint to lead the NPD after Daughtry leaves.
The Board of Aldermen could decide who to select at its next meeting, which is currently set for Dec. 13 but could be earlier.
Daughtry is resigning as NPD chief on Dec. 31 to become chief of the Columbus Police Department.
The mayor and aldermen have focused on appointing someone from within the NPD to take over as interim chief. They have not openly discussed yet expanding the pool of candidates to people outside the department by conducting an extensive search for a permanent NPD chief.
Daughtry was named two weeks ago by the Columbus City Council as the CPD’s new chief at a reported salary of $100,000 a year. He starts his new job Jan. 1. He’s moving to a police department for a larger city than Natchez, which had a population of about 14,500 people, according to the 2020 census. Columbus had about 24,000.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen hired Daughtry in December 2020 as the city’s top cop with an annual salary of $75,000. He was previously Pelahatchie’s police chief. He’s currently president of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police.
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