At their last board meeting, the City of Quitman voted to appoint Chris Read as the Quitman Police Chief, effective on August 15.
Read has ample experience in law enforcement and is prepared for the new position in the city.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for approximately 20 to 25 years total,” informed Read. “I did my whole career with Meridian Police Department. In between that, I was in Iraq for four years with the state department. I was considered a high threat protection executive out there in Iraq. I enjoyed that, came back, and continued my law enforcement career with Meridian. I had an opportunity to create an interstate unit that was successful, then moved up to supervisor position, and then eventually was appointed Chief of Police with Meridian. An administrative change came over, so I moved out of that. I’m currently out at the Navy base for a supervisor for B2X Corporation in support of the Navy. Now, I’m here in Quitman and fixing to start another thing which I’m excited about and looking forward to some positive changes that I can implement.”
One of the things he intends to do is maintain open lines of communication and be as transparent as possible with the public.
“The first thing I plan to do is being able to do my part logistically and operationally to put the confidence back in the department so the citizens can have confidence with it,” declared Read. “We always talk about it in law enforcement—no matter if you’re from a larger city, smaller city, municipality, or even county agency or whatever—about being transparent. People hear that word ‘transparent’ a lot, but it kind of leaves it right there, and it falls by the wayside. I’m absolutely open. My door will be open 24/7. They’ll have access to my phone information, interviews, or whatever. I think it’s very important because the reality is, especially with the mayor being an elected position and myself being in an appointed position, that we work for the citizens of Quitman and Clarke County. Even Clarke County residents have a vested interest in Quitman because they travel here every day. I think it’s important that transparency stays strong, so there are a lot of things logistically and operationally that we’re going to implement.”
When he begins his new position, he will be working closely with Mike McCarra, who is the newly appointed Assistant Police Chief.
“I worked with Mike McCarra even when he was in Meridian and I was in Meridian in the 90’s and early 2000’s,” stated Read. “I always look at it as he and I working with each other. He’s not working for me; I’m not working for him. We’re going to work together. I’m convinced through my past experiences that no one man can change a town, city, state, or even nationally. It takes a collective group of people moving the same direction, believing the same thing, and implementing those things. It’s not about me by myself. It’s not about the mayor. It’s about the citizens of Quitman and the citizens of Clarke County having confidence in their public safety and knowing that they feel safe.”
He intends to make sure that he and his officers are constantly active in the community and interact with the citizens.
“I’ve been in law enforcement pretty much my whole career. I’m still young, and I never got into this line of work, or this career, to sit behind a desk,” expressed Read. “I know certain positions entail that, but I’m still a law enforcement officer. I’m going to be out in the community. I’m going to be speaking with the business owners. I want them to not only know my first name, but I want them to know all the officers by their first name. Their first name is not officer. The only way that we can accomplish that is we have to get out of that vehicle. You see someone in their yard; you see someone sitting on a porch. I see someone in the schools doing walk throughs. Get to know the citizens. I’m telling you, that’s one of the big ways of building that relationship with the community. Without the community, there’s no way this department and there’s no way this executive branch will accomplish what we want to do. It takes a collective group of people moving the same direction, and we can accomplish so much more when everyone gets on board instead of just one person.”
The changes he intends to implement are intended to help the department be more proactive in deterring crime and ultimately help the community in multiple ways.
“As far as implementing changes and creating a positive system here logistically and operationally, some of those things can be implemented immediately and will have an immediate effect,” explained Read. “Others will be a process a few months to several months down the road. Once you create that and build that system and change individual’s mindsets, you get that proactive look. I honestly believe that if you get control of public safety, whether here in Quitman, Meridian, Hattiesburg, or wherever, you will have economic development. I’ve spoken with business owners of multi-million dollar businesses, and they said that that is the driving force of them establishing places in a town and stuff. That’s important to me, but the most important thing is just changing our mindset. Sometimes in a small town, we have a tendency to just sit back and wait for a call. I call that reactionary. I like to get ahead of it. I’m a huge proponent of preventative maintenance. It doesn’t matter if you have 10 people or 100 people. You’re never going to stop the crime, but I do believe there are a lot of things we can do to deter the crime as much as possible. I would rather have those things established in place and not need it than not have it and wait for something bad or tragic to happen before we say that we need to change or amend a policy. I don’t want to be reactive and then end up getting a call from the mayor saying I need to come see him. I’d like to prevent that from happening. I also believe in taking responsibility and accountability for our own actions within law enforcement. We have to be accountable. I also want to hold the citizens accountable, too. For individuals that choose a life of crime, I hope they wouldn’t, but if they choose that life of crime, there has to be accountability and consequences to their actions. If you remove those consequences from the actions of criminals, then you’ve just created controlled chaos. Everything is chaotic, and you have no control and no safety within your town. Citizens don’t feel secure or safe because we’ve removed those, and you can’t remove them. There has to be consequences to the choices they make. I don’t want them to make those negative choices, but if they do, there are going to be consequences and we’ll proceed with that.”
Mayor Chris Reeves believes that this new change in position will be positive for the community and is thankful for the years of dedicated service that Mike McCarra has provided. McCarra will continue to serve in the department until he retires at the beginning of 2026. Reeves is also thankful for the service provided by City Investigator David Viverette, who officially retires from the department on August 15.
“First off, I want to thank David Viverette for his service. He’s retiring effective the fifteenth. He’s been a part of Quitman law enforcement for a long time. I thank him for his service and hope he enjoys his retirement,” proclaimed Reeves. “Mike McCarra is still part of the department here. I appreciate him helping with the transition and appreciate his service. I think he’s had like 30 years of service maybe. Mike’s had a long service for Quitman and Clarke County in law enforcement, and we appreciate that from him. He sacrificed a lot to do that. The board decided to accept Viverette’s retirement, move Mike to a new position, and appoint Chris as chief. They’re going to work together, I think, seamlessly as a team. I think it’s going to be great for the people of Quitman and Clarke County because, as the chief said, it’s not just about Quitman. My big campaign, or 10 year objective, is to grow Quitman and encourage people to move here and do business here, and part of that is feeling safe and secure and having trust in law enforcement. I think we’re definitely on track for that. All of these changes were done with everybody involved. There was no ill will or anything like that. Mike’s done a good job. It was just time for a change. Mike has wisdom and knows the people too, and that’s valuable. We definitely want to show him the respect he deserves with his long law enforcement career. I think the board accomplished that. I’m excited about it, and I’m excited for the changes coming to Quitman. I’m thankful to have a board that all work together. Even if we have different opinions, we still value each other’s opinions and can pull in the same direction. That’s going to be huge for Quitman. Like the chief said, it’s a team effort. It’s not just me. It’s not just him. It’s a group and the community. We’re not always gong to agree on everything, but we can disagree with respect and dignity for each other and still look at our goals and try to move towards those.”
Read is excited about taking on the new position, especially after seeing how well the elected officials work together to make decisions that benefit their constituents.
“It’s important to me to be part of an administration—meaning aldermen, executive branch, legislative branch, or whatever—it’s so vitally important that we work together,” declared Read. “You have to work together. You can accomplish so much more. I like what the mayor said that we can agree to disagree. That’s okay, and there are times that we’re going to disagree. It doesn’t mean that we’re still not working together. I’m absolutely ecstatic. One of my main decisions with that was meeting with the mayor prior to this was the fact he was communicating with the aldermen and vice versa and how they’re working together. I’m ecstatic about coming into a department like this where they seem to work together, and plus at the forefront of an election where I can implement some things. When I was appointed chief in Meridian, it was within a six month re-election, and it was just absolutely chaotic. I learned a lot of things and experienced a lot of things, and there were some council members that we agreed and some that we disagreed. I also saw that when there’s division there that you aren’t going to accomplish anything. What I’ve seen here, I’m excited about, and I’m just looking forward to it.”
