Town Manager Amie Owens announced that Devin Holland will be appointed as Franklin’s next Chief of Police effective Dec. 1.

Less than three months after being named interim chief of police, Carla Neadeau has been sworn in as the first female chief of the Cherokee Indian Police Department.

When Chief of Police Josh Taylor’s resignation becomes effective June 27, the Cherokee Indian Police Department’s Captain of Corrections Carla Neadeau will take the helm as interim police chief. 

Josh Taylor is seven months into his job as chief of the Cherokee Indian Police Department. Asked how it’s going, he pauses, clasps his hands together atop the table, and leans forward.

Capt. Danny Bates will serve as Franklin’s interim police chief while the town goes through the hiring process to find its next full-time leader of the police department. 

Sylva’s newest police chief was looking for the little town in Jackson County before he knew it existed. 

“I didn’t want to work for a big huge agency where you don’t know your officers’ names,” said Chief Chris Hatton. “I also didn’t want to go somewhere we were dealing with violent crime every day, every day a shooting or a robbery. I’ve done that. I didn’t want to do it again. Truthfully, I was looking for Sylva for two years. I didn’t know that then, but I was looking for a place where you can live a good life and be surrounded by good people.”

Franklin Police Chief David Adams will have some big shoes to fill when he becomes Waynesville’s new police chief, but according to Waynesville Town Manager Rob Hites, Adams is the right person to fill them. 

Almost seven months after the retirement of its longtime police chief, the Town of Waynesville is getting closer to naming his replacement. 

As a 28-year veteran of the Waynesville Police Department, Captain Brian Beck — soon to be interim chief of police — remembers what it was like back in the not-so-good old days. 

After 22 years with the Sylva Police Department and two years as its head, Sylva Police Chief Tammy Hooper will retire on Aug. 1, 2019.