The City Council for the town of Moorhead held its regularly scheduled monthly session on Wednesday of last week and was introduced to the municipality’s newest top cops.
City Manager Percel Moore verified that veteran law enforcement officers Fred Randle and Sherod Reed have been named Chief of Police and assistant chief respectively.
Randle, a former Leflore County sheriff’s deputy and Leflore County Emergency Management Director is taking over the position vacated by former chief Bobby Walker , who was ousted in January.
Reed, former Director of Public Safety for the Greenville Public School District, is stepping into the position formerly held by assistant chief Sherry Myers.
Randle has reportedly been employed with the Leflore County Sheriff’s Department for the last 12 years and according to Moore has a total of 18 years of experience. The city manager said 11 people were interviewed for the position and at least one of them turned down the offer before Randle was selected.
Randle said his tenure would serve to promote community policing while looking out for the safety and welfare of the citizens. He asserted that his department will be fair and impartial, but will uphold the law.
Randle said he is hoping to “bring the community together as one so they can move forward in a positive direction.”
Randle said he and Reed have been out everyday riding the streets, surveying the city and checking for violations, and acknowledged that so far they have not found many traffic related infractions. “If any violations are done, we’ll take care of that,” he said.
Moore said the city’s new law enforcement team has already begun presenting ideas to bring back community trust. He said their aim is to, “rebuild that broken relationship between the department and the community.”
One project that Randle has in mind came about as a result of the recent flooding that affected Moorhead. That undertaking will be with the intent of enhancing the citizens’ response to future flooding situations. He said they will work in conjunction with the Sunflower County emergency management director to help the citizens build emergency response kits.
Among the other initiatives they hope to implement are new mentoring programs and a revival of the neighborhood watch program. Moore asserted, “The best police you can find is the neighbors.”
In addition to Randle and Reed, officers Rogers Simpson and Delfonzo Jones were brought onboard to fill positions in the strained department. Moore said he now has six officers with one position left to fill.
Former chief and assistant, Walker and Myers along with two other officers were let go during the first month of the year in the wake of their making a complaint against Moore, which eventually resulted in the officers not showing up for duty and laying claim that they were locked out of the building, which was later revealed that they had access to.
Wednesday night’s meeting also revealed that the former officers have filed an EEOC complaint against the city; however, Mayor George Holland said they are not aware of any formal lawsuit being filed.
The Sunflower County Sheriff’s Department has been assisting with the policing of the town over the past month and a half after the turmoil between police department personnel and Moore led to the previous officers being terminated.
