COVINGTON, Va. – The city of Covington has a new police chief and public safety director.
Anthony Morgan Jr. officially started in those roles in February after the previous police chief retired.
Chief Morgan laid out some of his biggest goals as police chief with 10 News.
"I was looking for someplace I thought that would embrace a philosophy of community policing," Morgan said of his move from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to Covington. The New Jersey native and North Carolina Central University graduate spent the past 15 years with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety, the largest fully integrated police, fire and EMS department in the United States. Morgan most recently served as a lieutenant with the department. He said that experience will help him lead Covington's department.
Morgan has already hit the ground running with his community policing initiatives. Last week, Covington police officers started a community canvass so police and neighbors can get to know each other.
"A lot of the feedback I got was having that relationship with police," Morgan said. "As I talked with the officers, they expressed, too, wanting to have that relationship as well, and the missing piece was getting both sides together."
Officers plan to visit every Covington neighborhood as part of the canvass.
Morgan's other big goals include guiding the department through the accreditation process, continuing to build a teamwork atmosphere within the department and fighting drug use, especially in young adults.
"We want to have more of an impact on that," Morgan said. "Not just with arresting and locking everyone up, but there are resources here within the community that maybe they don't know about that we can expose them to."