There’s a new police chief in Mansfield.

Annette Blue has been promoted to the post.

Friends and community members packed the City Council meeting room Monday to watch her take the oath of office.

The former assistant police chief replaces Police Chief Gary Hobbs, who retired this week.

Blue, who has been with Mansfield police for 33 years, now is the department’s first female and first African-American police chief.

“I never thought this day was coming,” Blue said. “I’m going to make baby steps until I get it right. I’m just going to keep trying. Make some changes. Some things don’t need to be changed. Some do.”

The Police Department has 11 officers.

“We need to get more people hired in the department. And we need to get the wages up.”

The City Council on Monday also promoted police Lt. Billy Locke to assistant police chief.

Locke has been with the Police Department for 10 years.

“We want to keep our crime stats down,” Locke said. “With community policing, we are gonna have an open-door policy for our citizens to come talk to us at any time.”

http://www.ksla.com/2019/03/12/new-police-chief-asst-chief-mansfield/