Hattiesburg city officials are expected to decide this week if former Vicksburg Police Chief Mitchell Dent will take over the police department there 

Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree nominated Dent last week to replace Frazier Bolton as police chief. The Hattiesburg City Council meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and is expected to vote on the nomination of Dent and 10 other appointed officials.

“The staff I have now, I’m fully satisfied with,” DuPree told the Hattiesburg American. “I believe they’ve done a great job for a long time, and they served the citizens of Hattiesburg well.

“But through direct conversations with at least one council person and innuendos from others, it seems four were going to have difficulty getting passed.”

The resolution appointing Dent as chief is prepared — minus signatures — and included in the council’s agenda packet available though the city’s website.

“Everything is still in the works,” Dent said by phone Friday, declining to make further comments until after Tuesday’s vote.

Hattiesburg City Council President Kim Bradley said he only had just seen the list of appointments

“(The four), they’re all new to me,” Bradley said. “I guess we’ll need to find out who they are. We’ll just need to see.”

Dent worked for VPD for a combined 33 years, including serving as chief from 2000 to 2001 after having been deputy chief from 1997 to 2000. He left VPD in 2002, according to the resume he submitted to Hattiesburg officials.

He rejoined VPD in 2010 as deputy chief under Walter Armstrong. Dent stayed in that position until 2013.

Between stints at VPD, Dent worked as a fraud investigator for the Corps of Engineers.

Dent is also ordained as a minister and has been pastor of Mount Carmel Ministries in Vicksburg for the past 15 years.

Hattiesburg is not unfamiliar territory for Dent. Mount Carmel Ministries is based there, and Dent began his career at Hattiesburg PD after attending the University of Southern Mississippi.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this story.