Columbus’ new police chief shares vision for department
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) -After two weeks on the job, Columbus’s new police chief, Garland Ward, says he’s ready for the challenge.
Garland Ward received a promotion from assistant chief to chief. And he has hit the ground running.
He’s not a stranger to the position; before coming to Columbus via former police chief Joseph Daughtry, Ward served as Chief of the McComb Police Department.
He says that he’s up for the challenge.
Thursday, Ward fielded questions from the Exchange Club of Columbus.
He says those questions will help him and his department strategize on how to proceed.
“It helps a lot to see what the community needs and what they want so we can implement what we’re going to do, and it progresses better and makes everything better,” said Chief Ward.
Ward also talked about how he wanted to implement more community policing — something he began while working in McComb.
“We already do the community walks, but we do it with council members. I’m gonna set it up to where we do it as a police department. We’re not gonna wait for someone to ask us to walk through the community; we’re gonna walk through the community on our own. We’re gonna knock on doors, we’re gonna speak to people, and we’re gonna talk to people. And just to get to know people, we’re not there to make an arrest; we’re not there to solicit anything; we’re there to have a conversation and to let them know they can count on us and they can depend on us,” said Ward.
Another thing Ward wants to do is strengthen the partnerships, not just with local agencies, like MUW Campus Police and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, but with regional departments in Starkville, West Point, Caledonia, and beyond. He says building partnerships, it helps because a lot of times, they’re dealing with the same people.
“It’s important that we get an understanding with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, with West Point Police Department, with other agencies, with other entities, because we’re chasing the same people. And it’ll be a breath of fresh air that I can call West Point and say, ” Hey, I got his guy over here, are y’all looking for him? And they say, ‘Oh yeah, we’re looking for him, he’s involved in something over here, and we’ll know that because we’re communicating with each other, we have partnerships with each other. But if we don’t have partnerships, I can’t call anybody and ask anything because we don’t have partnerships; we’re not even on speaking terms.”
Ward also says that he wants to create an environment where people can come to him freely
