The Starkville Rotary Club received some information on law enforcement in the community when Starkville Police Chief Frank Nichols spoke Monday.
Nichols gave an update on the police department covering areas including manpower, enforcement and the types of crime often seen in Starkville.
“Right now, we are one of the top departments in the state of Mississippi,” Nichols said. “I don’t just say that because I am the chief here. I say that because, I’m on the executive board of a chief’s association, and that’s a fact. We’re well-respected around the state of Mississippi.”
He discussed the importance of having qualified officers on the force, and the need for the department to grow with the city. He said five new officers would be introduced to the community at the Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday night.
He said the SPD, along with many other departments, had trouble retaining its younger officers.
“Officers who have been there five or more years, a lot of them are still there,” Nichols said. “It’s that one to two-year officer that we have a problem keeping just like everybody else in the state of Mississippi and all over the United States. It’s just the generation, a lot of it.”
Nichols said he was as selective as possible when hiring new officers, and tried to hire officers with connections to Starkville and north Mississippi.
“We try to coach them to realize you have to take pride in where you are,” Nichols said.
He also discussed some of the changes in police work since he joined the SPD in 1992.
“Starkville is getting bigger, and so is the university,” Nichols said. “With that being said, the police department has to get bigger, too.”
He said the department had also focused its strategy away from ticketing motorists and more toward patrolling neighborhoods and searching areas with suspicious activity.
He said the number of tickets written had dropped by a considerable margin, while the number of security checks had risen from 2,500 to 9,000 from 2016 to 2017.
“They’re doing their jobs,” Nichols said. “We want to be in those neighborhoods. If you’re out there speeding and acting a fool, we’re going to stop you, but we’re not going to be sitting on the side of the highway at 2 a.m. trying to catch a speeder. We’re going to be patrolling your neighborhoods. That’s the mindset that I have. “
He also briefly discussed the department’s strategy for an active shooter situation in a school.
“This is one thing that I can promise you about Starkville P.D.,” Nichols said. “Those officers are going in that school. Our training says to get there, and to get in there, whether it’s me, or whether it’s the brand-new rookie.”
Nichols has led the SPD since 2014. He is a veteran of the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army National Guard.