NATCHEZ. Miss. — The Board of Aldermen today appointed Pelahatchie’s police chief to be Natchez’ top cop. Joseph Daughtry will replace Walter Armstrong, who’s retiring.
Daughtry brings to Natchez 25 years experience working in police and sheriff departments in New Orleans, Jackson, Hinds County and Rankin County. He became Pelahatchie’s police chief in 2018. He’ll transition in the coming days to the Natchez Police Department, which Armstrong has led since 2017.
After spending more than three hours Tuesday interviewing four candidates, the board today voted 4-0 to hire Daughtry at an annual salary of $75,000. Alderman Billie Joe Frazier abstained from the vote, and Alderman Felicia Irving was absent.
Gibson said Daughtry stood out as the best of the 36 applicants seeking to be Natchez’ new police chief. “We couldn’t be more excited about someone of Chief Daughtry’s character and caliber coming to Natchez,” the mayor said.
He said Daughtry’s experience working for and with various large and small law-enforcement agencies makes him well-suited for Natchez, a city of about 15,000 people. Prior to becoming police chief in Pelahatchie, a town of about 1,300 near Jackson, Daughtry was an officer with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office and the Jackson Police Department.
The mayor noted Daughtry is a friend of Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten and should be able to ensure city police and county sheriff’s deputies effectively collaborate in fighting crime in Natchez and Adams County.
In accepting the job today, Daughtry told the mayor and aldermen that “I won’t let you down.”
While aldermen were unanimous in voting for Daughtry, Frazier declined to vote today after storming out of Tuesday’s board meeting angry that only the mayor and three other aldermen were involved in deciding who the six-member board interviews. Saying they “manipulated” the selection process, Frazier alleged Daughtry was preordained to be chief before Tuesday’s interviews, which were closed to the public. Frazier is a retired Natchez police officer.
However, Gibson said all aldermen except Frazier strongly back Daughtry, and he noted the Board of Aldermen used the normal process of selecting the police chief. The mayor and a three-member committee of aldermen selected the four finalists for the full board to interview. Of the 36 applicants screened by the Natchez Civil Service Commission, seven prospects were put forward for the mayor and the board’s police committee to winnow down.
Daughtry comes from a town where Pelahatchie’s mayor and aldermen feuded last year over finances. It spilled over into arguments between the mayor and Daughtry when police officers were not being paid, according to published reports. The mayor suspended Daughtry from his job but was overruled by Pelahatchie aldermen.
Gibson said Daughtry – who’s a vice president of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police – came highly recommended by other city police chiefs and county sheriffs.
“He’s just the man we need to step into the (job) of someone as great of a police chief as Walter Armstrong,” the mayor said.
Armstrong is retiring after 36 years in law enforcement that included stints as a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper and Vicksburg police chief before coming to Natchez in 2017.
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