Commander Wendell Watts has been hired as the city of Gluckstadt’s first police chief. He was chosen out of nearly 40 resumes received by the mayor and board of aldermen and will be sworn in on March 8. He is currently a Watch Commander for the City of Madison Police Department and Director of Security for a large security unit at Merit Health Central.
He has been in law enforcement since 1992 when he started with the Jackson Police Department. During his time with JPD, he served as precinct officer, Fun Interdiction Unit Officer, K-9 narcotics officer, precinct sergeant, Precinct 4 commander, detective sergeant and commander for the Special Operations Division. After 20 years with JPD, Watts became a captain in the Hinds County Sheriff’s Department overseeing the Training Academy and Reserve Unit.
Watts received his criminal justice degree from Hinds Community College. He is married to Michelle Renee and has three children: Austin, Brandon and Kelsey. He is an active member of Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Jackson
What caught your eye about Gluckstadt and made you want to apply to be its first police chief?
“The one thing that caught my eye about Gluckstadt was that it is a brand new city. It is not like going in and taking over where one chief has already put his mark on the department and having to either change things to adjust to make it better or anything like that. This is starting from scratch where I’ll be working with the budget with both the mayor and the board to decide how many officers we will need, how many vehicles we will need, what color vehicles, what type of patches, and what colors of uniforms – the whole deal. It is a very exciting and once in a lifetime opportunity in a law enforcement officer’s career to be able to be the first police chief and help the city grow. It is an amazing adventure.”
What is your most prevalent thought or emotion when you think about being in charge of the task to build the department from the ground up?
“It is almost every emotion. It is exciting and scary, but mostly exciting and an amazing opportunity to bring policing to Gluckstadt. I’m really big on community policing and bringing the businesses and citizens together to get their input on what they feel problems are and looking at what we need to address and how we need to address them. I’m very transparent when it comes to policing because you have to have the public’s backing. For the mayor and the board to give me this opportunity, I want to make sure that it’s very successful. My position is to make the citizens and businesses feel safe so we can have a thriving city to bring in visitors, families, and more businesses.”
What has most prepared you for this role?
“I’d like to say that everything I got to experience through my law enforcement career has some type of influence on that. My biggest part was working with the citizens of Jackson and learning how to actually community police. I was over a lot of specialized units where we went in and had to clean up crime and, without the citizens telling us things we didn’t know, we would have never been successful in those times.”
What are your top priorities once you are sworn in on March 8th?
“My top priorities will be, of course, getting with the mayor and board to come up with a budget that we can work with and also then getting policies and procedures in place. Then, it will be hiring at that point.”
How quickly do you see things, such as officers and cars, coming to fruition?
“We have already discussed a lot of things during the interview process because I like to look ahead at times like where I’m going to be in one year or three years or five to six years. The big thing is looking at the budget, seeing where we go from there as far as how many officers we will be hiring, and placing them on the streets as quickly as possible. At that point, we are going to have to design the cars, purchase the cars, design and purchase the uniforms. There is a lot of stuff in place that I would like to see that we would be having patrol officers starting to patrol the streets within the year.”
What do you want your department to be known for?
“Their professionalism and their integrity.”
Are there any changes you’re looking to make compared to other departments you’ve been a part of?
“I’ve worked side-by-side with a lot of agencies. I’ve also worked at Jackson and Hinds and I also have a lot of business experience here at Merit Health. So, I’m going to take a lot from each and work on the failures that occurred at the other places so they won’t happen with us. I will work on a lot of things that are a success that I can bring to Gluckstadt.”
What are you most excited for?
“Being given the opportunity from the mayor and board to be the first chief of Gluckstadt and to help it go from the ground up – that is the most exciting thing. I’m excited to be able to work side-by-side with the community and businesses and make Gluckstadt great.”
