TUTWILER — A two-year veteran of the Tutwiler Police Department has been named chief of the law enforcement agency.
Carlos Martez Thompson, 43, who has served as patrolman, investigator and, since October, interim chief of the department, received the promotion to chief on a vote taken at the Dec. 5 meeting of the Tutwiler Board of Aldermen.
He succeeds Marion Bedford, who served more than five years as Tutwiler’s top cop.
Tutwiler Mayor Nichole Harris-Rosebud said she and other municipal leaders are high on Thompson.
“We look forward to great leadership coming from Chief Thompson,” she noted. “We are going to provide him with all the support he needs to run a successful department.”
For his part, Thompson, a lifelong Tallahatchian, said he is “going to take this opportunity to be a community servant and to protect the citizens of the Tutwiler community to the best of my ability.”
The new chief said he has started a neighborhood crime watch "to help crack down on crimes in the Tutwiler community." Thompson noted that meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month at the municipal activities center complex.
Thompson said Tutwiler presently has six full-time police officers in addition to himself and has openings for two more full-time, certified officers.
