On Monday, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed announced that city of New Orleans Deputy Chief Darryl Albert was been selected as the new police chief for the city of Montgomery.
“There are a lot of important hires, a lot of important decisions that a mayor must make, but none more important than who you hire as your police chief,” Reed said. “That person is probably the second most visible person, besides the mayor, to most of your communities. Because of that, this is something that we have taken a global approach to. This process has taken a little bit longer than we would have liked.
“Public safety is the number one issue in this community, It is the number one issue of my administration.”
Reed said of Albert that he's a best-in-class leader. He also expressed gratitude on behalf of the city and its residents to have someone with Albert's 32 years of experience in law enforcement and 15 years leading SWAT teams. He also said Albert is an army veteran.
“We believe and we are confident that not only is he the best choice externally, but also to lead this department internally,” Reed said. “We are very excited to be here today.”
Albert said, “I want to say that it is going to be very rewarding for all of us.
“We will be hard on crime, but we will be kind with the community. We will make the City of Montgomery a better place to live, work and play. I can’t wait to get going. I can’t wait to meet the staff.”
Albert said that he plans to work with state and federal law enforcement to fight crime in the city of Montgomery.
“Violent crime is up across the country,” Albert said. “I am looking at federal indictments on gun charges. I am looking at state charges.”
Albert brings more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement and most recently served as Commander of the Special Operations Division for the New Orleans Police Department. Albert led units that slashed New Orleans’ murder rate while significantly reducing instances of violent crime. He proved instrumental in leading city-wide preparation, deployment and recovery efforts amid Hurricane Katrina as well as other storm and emergency events.
He has held several key leadership positions, including Deputy Chief of Field Operations, the largest Bureau within New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), Commander of NOPD Crime Laboratory, and Commander of Criminal Investigations Division for Homicide.
To see a video of Monday’s city announcement, click here.
Crime has become a major issue in the city of Montgomery, particularly violent crime.
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