Charlottesville’s first African-American Police Chief, Alfred Thomas, Jr., was sworn into office May 23. He succeeds Tim Longo, who worked with the department for 15 years.
“You’ll notice they didn’t give me a gun yet,” Thomas said while fastening his new chief of police badge to his pants. City and county police in uniform, city councilors and other community members gathered at City Hall to watch City Clerk Llezelle Dugger swear him in.
Thomas was named chief of the Lexington Police Department in 2010, where he worked for 20 years and served most recently as the public information officer.
He was recommended by City Manager Maurice Jones out of a 63-person applicant pool.