Vicksburg Police Capt. Sandra Williams is leaving the police department to become chief of the Clarksdale Police Department.

Her appointment was announced in a press release emailed by the city of Clarksdale. She is the city’s first female police chief, according to the release. She takes office Sept. 11, and will oversee a 49-person department. She turned in her resignation Friday, and her last day with Vicksburg is Sept. 8.

“It’s a great feeling,” she said of the appointment. “I feel accomplished. I have finally reached my goal as a police officer, which is to be chief of police. I’m very fortunate along the years, to obtain the training and experience that’s needed to do the job as chief of police.”

Williams has 26 years’ experience in law enforcement and is in the U.S. Navy Reserve where she is assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at Belle Chasse, La.

She joined the Vicksburg Police Department in 1991 as a patrol officer. She later worked in crime prevention and taught the department’s GREAT, or gang resistance education and training, at the city’s junior high schools.

She worked in juvenile investigations and was promoted to sergeant and was transferred in 2000 to the department’s criminal investigations division. She was named chief of investigations in 2013.

She said she will miss working in the department.

“I’m leaving behind a lot of good people at the Vicksburg Police Department,” she said, adding she had an “outstanding group of investigators” during her time as chief of investigations.

“Those investigators worked extremely hard and we solved a lot of crimes.

“I’m very appreciative, and I’m very grateful, the Mayor Espy has the trust and confidence in me to be the top law enforcement official in his city,” she said.