Scott, deputy police chief, resigns after 6 months
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Without explanation, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen accepted Deputy Chief Jeffrey Scott’s resignation in closed session Monday, effective immediately.
When asked if Scott provided any reason for resigning little more than six months after quitting a job with the Jackson Police Department to join the Vicksburg force, Mayor Paul Winfield said, “That’s a personnel matter that we’re not at liberty to discuss.”
Scott did not return calls.
Before joining the VPD in October, Scott had 17 years with the Jackson department — rising through the ranks there from dispatcher to patrol officer to homicide investigator and, at the time of his departure, public information officer.
“We don’t have any immediate plans for filling that spot, but we do plan to fill it,” said Police Chief Walter Armstrong. “We’ll continue to march forward from here.”
Armstrong also was silent on the specifics of Scott’s resignation, but indicated he did not foresee it coming.
“He perhaps had given it some thought over the past few days, but again, what I can say at this point is that he resigned effective today,” the chief said.
“Certainly, I appreciate the service he rendered while he was here and I wish him the best, but I can’t get into the details,” he said.
Scott’s appointment was part of a restructuring of the police department that began when Winfield defeated Laurence Leyens in the mayoral election in June.
Winfield had pledged to replace former Police Chief Tommy Moffett during his campaign, and his new vision for the force became a central point in the election after Leyens, the two-term incumbent, vowed to continue supporting Moffett.
Armstrong was selected as police chief by a 2-1 mayor and aldermen vote shortly after Winfield took office in July, and he later recommended both Scott and John Dolan as deputy chiefs. Under Moffett’s command the police department operated with one deputy chief. The mayor and aldermen unanimously signed off on Scott’s appointment to oversee department operations, while Dolan’s appointment to oversee administrative duties was approved 2-1.
They were sworn in Oct. 1.
Winfield said he anticipates beginning the search for Scott’s replacement “in the very near future.”
Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com