Parker sworn as new Hattiesburg police chief

For Anthony “Stoney” Parker, Monday morning marked a homecoming of sorts.

Before an overflow crowd of family, friends, fellow law enforcement officers and University of Southern Mississippi comrades and officials, Parker was sworn as Hattiesburg’s new police chief.

Mayor Johnny DuPree administered the oath of office to Parker, who left a similar post in Crystal Springs to return to the city he called home in the 1970s during his days as a student-athlete at USM.

“This is truly a day for celebration,” Parker said, “but we also must get back to business. Thank you for all your support and God bless you.”

DuPree nominated Parker on June 15, the fourth time he had brought a nomination forward for City Council approval to replace Frazier Bolton as HPD’s top administrator.

“He’s a genuine person, and you can’t find genuine people like that all the time,” DuPree said. “I expect great things.”

Council had rejected DuPree’s first three nominees, and tabled a vote June 16 on Parker, who had met with council for the first time the day before.

Bolton, who was not nominated for re-appointment after about eight years at the helm, spent his last day in the city’s employ Friday.

Parker was approved by Council in a special-called meeting June 29, and spent the past month splitting time between wrapping up his tenure in Crystal Springs and visiting Hattiesburg to get a feel for the department where he would take the reins.

Parker said he still was evaluating the department, though he didn’t expect making many major changes.

“Once I get in and get my feet wet, then we’ll decide what other things need to be done,” Parker said.

Monday’s swearing in at Jackie Dole Sherrill Community Center featured the upper echelon of the HPD command, more than two dozen other officers and the city’s department heads. Six former Hattiesburg police chiefs also were on hand.

“These are the men who built the foundation of this department,” Parker said. “This is one of the finest departments already in the nation, and I just want to keep that up.”

USM President Rodney Bennett, former President Aubrey Lucas and Parker’s former head football coach, Bobby Collins, led a large contingent from his former alma mater.

Parker saved Collins until the end, and then was overwhelmed by emotion while trying to explain the gratitude he felt for his coach.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one more person who is special to me, who knows he is special to me,” Parker said before breaking down. “He is a great man.”

Collins said as great a football player as Parker was for the Golden Eagles, he was an even better person.

“This doesn’t surprise me at all,” Collins said. “He was a model player and then we’ve kept up with him through our son-in-law, who is also in law enforcement.

“We know that he has done an outstanding job in law enforcement, and in fact, I told him, ‘We’re going to put a lot of pressure on you. We’ve talked about how great you were in football, we’ve talked about how great you were in law enforcement and now we expect you to be great here in Hattiesburg again.’ ”

Parker has 33 years of law enforcement experience, including more than two decades with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. After retiring from MHP’s Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, he joined the Crystal Springs police department, and rose from patrolman to sergeant to lieutenant before becoming chief in October 2013.

Ward 4 Councilwoman Mary Dryden said she and the council also had great expectations for Parker.

“I have heard nothing but positive, glowing things about Stoney Parker, and I think you can see, from all the well-wishers who came (Monday), including the mayor and an alderman from Crystal Springs, that he is a beloved person,” Dryden said. “The police officers seem happy and that was very important.”

In a “welcome” letter to Parker from the Hattiesburg Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 55, Lodge President E. Allen Murray said the rank-and-file were looking forward to the change at the top.

“With the swearing ceremony now over, we have come upon a time for recovery,” Murray wrote. “The recovery period will not be completed overnight. Parts of the recovery can take well over a year, but we have taken the first of many steps to come.”

For Bettie Parker, who met her husband-to-be at USM, it was a step back to the familiar while stepping into the future.

“This is a big deal for us,” she said in between greeting well-wishers and old friends. “We met 41 years ago, and Hattiesburg will always be special to us. This is where we got to know each other and went to school together.

“We have always bled black-and-gold, and we are just so happy to be here.”