POWELL, Ala. (WHNT) — A new Powell Police Department (PPD) chief was named after the now-former chief resigned citing some professional grievances with city leadership.
On his second day as chief, Michael Little sat down with News 19 to discuss his future plans. He is no stranger to the job, as he served within PPD previously.
“It’s been going good,” said Chief Little, “It feels good to be home. I really enjoy the town, love the people in the town and I’m proud to be back.”
Chief Little takes over a pretty small operation that has only one remaining officer, but he plans to hire two more.
“It’ll be enough and I’ll gage it from there, and if we need anything else I’ll take it before the Mayor and council and see what we can do,” said Chief Little.
He took over after former chief Gage Wilson resigned.
Wilson said in a Facebook post that one of the reasons for his resignation stemmed from his department being passed up for new equipment so the town could build a new town hall with money he claims is from COVID funds for first responders.
City councilman Reggie Byrum, who spoke on behalf of the mayor’s office, spoke with News 19 after Wilson’s post.
“Well that’s not exactly the way it was, but I don’t really want to elaborate on that right now. There [are] some things that’s got to be confirmed,” said Byrum.
Byrum explained that the resignation of Wilson, along with the Assistant Chief and two other officers, came after the last city council meeting.
“We had a motion go on the table to hire a sixth officer, and we, I had some questions and some of the other council had some questions, I’m sure, about why does a town this small need that many officers, when we’re already covering more hours than we’re actually allotted for the police department,” said Byrum.
As for the new chief taking over, the only issue he feels the town faces is drug-related.
“It’s a pretty quiet town, we have issues with drugs but we have a lot of help from the sheriff’s office and the Drug Task Force and neighboring agencies… We all work together to solve the issues,” said Chief Little.
Overall, the new Chief is excited and proud to be back in uniform serving his community.
