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Chesterfield County picks its first Black police chief

A Black man in police uniform speaks at a podium.
Billy Shields
/
VPM News
Lt. Col. Frank Carpenter speaks after being announced as Chesterfield County's new police chief Wednesday, October 30. Carpenter, previously the deputy chief of operations, is the county's first Black chief.

Lt. Col. Frank Carpenter was chosen after a six-month vetting process.

Chesterfield County announced Wednesday that it had chosen Lt. Col. Frank Carpenter as its new police chief. Carpenter, who has been part of CCPD's force for almost 25 years, is the first Black person to serve in the role.

“I think it’s significant, right? I think anything that’s a first is significant,” he said to reporters Wednesday. “But I don’t want to be measured based on that. The bottom line is I have something to offer this community.”

A search committee took six months to identify Carpenter, the department's deputy chief of operations since July 2023, as the successor to Col. Jeffrey Katz, who left May 1 after six years to take a position with the FBI. Lt. Col. Bradford Badgerow served as interim chief during the search.

According to a press release from the county, Carpenter holds a master’s degree in public safety from the University of Virginia and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico.

His appointment comes at a time when the department is facing controversies centered on safety and transparency.

Carpenter told reporters he would continue the department’s policy of keeping the identities and salaries of its workforce secret. So far, the county has successfully fended off a Freedom of Information Act request by citizen Alice Minium to obtain that information, on the grounds that any of its 550 officers could go undercover at some point.

“People who intend to get their identity may want to do nefarious things,” Carpenter said. “If the courts change that decision, we’ll have to adjust accordingly.”

Parents have also become increasingly vocal about safety in the county’s public schools, especially following a stabbing in the halls of Meadowbrook High School that injured one student and led to the arrest of three others.

“We don’t want that to happen again,” Carpenter said, adding that the department has been in touch with CCPS to tackle problems like detecting weapons in school.

Carpenter is the county’s ninth police chief since the department was founded in 1914.

Billy Shields is a multimedia journalist with VPM News Focal Point.