Mayor breaks tie to appoint interim Natchez police chief

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson had to break city aldermen’s 3-3 tie Tuesday to appoint Cal Green as interim Natchez police chief.

Gibson said Green’s 26 years experience in law enforcement — mostly with the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and more recently with the Natchez Police Department — makes her best qualified to temporarily replace Joseph Daughtry, who resigns as NPD chief Dec. 31.

However, aldermen voting against Green said they want to appoint one of the two other candidates because they’ve worked longer in the NPD.

Green – the first female Natchez police chief — is currently the NPD’s community services commander. The mayor and three aldermen opted for her rather than the two other prospects: NPD patrol commander Justin Jones and shift supervisor Jerry Ford.

Aldermen joining the mayor voting for Green: Valencia Hall, Sarah Carter Smith and Ben Davis. Voting against: Billie Joe Frazier, Felicia Irving and Dan Dillard.

While Frazier – a former NPD officer — said the decision for Green was “a sham” and will cause dissension within the NPD, Gibson said the selection process was “open-minded and fair.”

Green is a long-serving Adams County’s sheriff’s deputy who joined the NPD a year or so ago. She said she’ll “absolutely do the best job I can do” as interim police chief.

“I will do my best to alleviate your concerns. That’s all I can do,” she told the aldermen.

The mayor and Board of Aldermen finalized their decision for Green in an open session Tuesday after closing the public out of their interviews with her, Jones and Ford last week.

Daughtry is resigning as NPD chief to take over the Columbus Police Department after just two years in Natchez.

Gibson and aldermen have focused on appointing someone from within the NPD to be interim chief. They’ve 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 last month 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, which is holding its state conference in Natchez next week.