New police chief sworn in after six months of vacancy in Brooksville
A Brooksville native becomes the new police chief.
BROOKSVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – For six months, the Brooksville Police Department was without a chief.
That vacancy was filled on Monday, July 27, when Brooksville native Anthony Belgrave was sworn into office.
Belgrave said he got his start in law enforcement on the town’s force in 2003.
“It’s just always been a dream to come back home and get the community back … and try to help the young kids and try to let them understand that there are role models out here and that they can do the right thing,” said Belgrave.
In the past 23 years, Belgrave has served in school districts, a university, and local police departments.
Monday, a new officer was also sworn in, bringing the total up to three officers on duty.
Belgrave said his first priorities as police chief include building the staff and community service.
“They got a got good law enforcement here already, we just going to try to add on to it and bring some more people in and start just doing some community policing… we’re going to go by and check on the elderly,” said Belgrave.
Vice Mayor Angel Anthony-Brooks said the addition to BPD will be greatly felt around town.
“At least we’ll have coverage now. We were without coverage for about six months … now we got an officer that’s going to be devoted. We didn’t have a chief, we didn’t have any leadership … so now I feel safe. I feel like the community is going to be feeling safer now too by having a chief come in with some more officers,” said Anthony-Brooks.
Chief Belgrave said he also plans to host more events for the youth like movie nights and summer camps.
Belgrave’s first day in office is Tuesday, July 28.
He said the town plans to hire more police officers within the next month.
