Jeffery Scott and John Dolan were administered their oaths of office by Mayor Paul Winfield at a called meeting Wednesday, and the two will begin their service as the new deputy chiefs of the Vicksburg Police Department today.

Following the swearing-in, the mayor and aldermen set the deputy chiefs’ salary at $68,000 annually in executive session, said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman — who did not support hiring two deputy chiefs or giving them roughly the same pay former Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon was being paid at the end of his eight years of service. Winfield briefly welcomed the new deputy chiefs before swearing them in, but the two did not address the board during the brief meeting.

Dolan, 55, brings with him 28 years of local law enforcement experience. He formerly served 18 years with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department, was a deputy chief of VPD for four years and spent six years with the Mississippi Gaming Commission. He will supervise administrative duties for the police department, which has a $7 million budget.

Scott, 40, formerly the public information officer for the Jackson Police Department at the rank of lieutenant — will oversee all department operations.

The appointments complete the change in administrative police personnel Winfield championed on the campaign trail leading to his June 2 election. In June, Armstrong was selected by the mayor and aldermen by a 2-1 vote — Beauman again casting the lone dissenting ballot — to replace Tommy Moffett, who had been chief since 2001.

Although there was one deputy chief during Moffett’s years, most previous administrations had multiple deputy chiefs.

Dolan has lived in Vicksburg since he was 17, and he is married with one child. A graduate of St. Aloysius High School as well as the University of Southern Mississippi, he completed the Mississippi Law Enforcement Officers’ Training Academy in 1977. He left the Warren County’s Sheriff’s Department as chief of detectives, served as the VPD deputy chief from 1993 to 1997 and was an enforcement agent for the gaming commission from 1998 to 2004.

Scott began his career with the Jackson force as a dispatcher in 1992. He also is a former patrol officer, and he oversaw more than 200 homicide investigations as a crime scene investigator with JPD. He is a graduate of Jackson State University, the Federal Emergency Management Institute in Maryland and the Metro Police Institute of Miami-Dade County, Fla. He is married with two children, 16 and 4 years old, and said his family will move to Vicksburg.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com