By Major Jerry Bell, Public Affairs Officer
On Monday, Jan. 9, Mayor Riley Smith appointed Roy Williams as the new Chief of Police for DeQuincy. The city council unanimously approved his appointment.
Chief Williams started as a correctional Officer at the Louisiana Correctional & Industrial (later named C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center) in 1983. He became a Field Lieutenant in 1988 where he served as a supervisor over the gun line and other offender work crews involved in field operations. Williams held the rank of captain as the Chief investigator for the prison from 1992-1997. From 1997-2002, he held the rank of Lt. Colonel.
In 2002, he was promoted to Assistant Warden over Security and later detailed to the position of Deputy Warden. During the 1990s, he worked as a reserve deputy for the Vernon Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Upon closure of the Phelps Correctional Center in 2012, he retired with 30 years of state service. He worked several jobs in the private sector before eventually returning to law enforcement in January 2016 with the DQPD. Williams was appointed the interim Chief of Police right before Chief Casey Whitehead became the full time chief.
He is married to Johna Henagan Williams. They have four children and 11 grandchildren and reside here in DeQuincy. They are members of the Pentecostal Church of DeQuincy.
Williams related that he has an open-door policy for all our citizens and encourages them to come by for a visit. He stated that his goal is to make DeQuincy as safe as possible and manage a Police Department that is of the people and for the people.
Williams stated that he plans to restructure the DeQuincy Police Dept. to make it even more professional and more capable to handle the needs of our citizens.
He praised the former chief, Casey Whitehead, and stated that his shoes will be hard to fill because of his dedication to our city and his work on fighting the drug problems that existed when he was chief.
He thanked Chief Whitehead for giving him a high recommendation for this position and thanked Mayor Riley Smith for having confidence in him by appointing him to the Chief of Police Position.
