ABILENE, TX – Over the years, few have held the title of Abilene’s Police Chief. Now there’s a new man sitting in the driver’s seat, Abilene Police Chief Marcus Dudley Jr. who says he wants to bring empathy back to the police department.
Chief Dudley’s official start date was January 1, 2021.
As he begins his journey under this new title, he’s making a few stops on his road map and it all starts inside the police department.
“Some of the longer term things that we need to address is training,” said Chief Dudley.
Dudley says when he first joined law enforcement 20 years ago, there was a big focus on ‘stopping the threat.’
“We never tuck at that next level to ensure that the person who engaged in that level of intensity in terms of stopping the threat understands that they still have a responsibility to render aid,” said Dudley.
He says empathy is something police departments have forgotten about and wants to bring it back to Abilene.
Next on Dudley’s list involves getting in the car and hitting the road.
“Folks in the community, desire to be heard,” said Chief Dudley.
The relationship between police and the community will come with a few potholes but filing those, according to Dudley, is about driving to them.
“For us to really be able to break down those barriers and better understand what each other’s needs are is for us to connect and making an effort to get out and meet people where they are,” said Chief Dudley.
That same strategy will be used for recruiting, another stop on Dudley’s drive.
“We’re missing some opportunity,” said Chief Dudley. “There are three colleges here that we should be actively recruiting from, we have a military base that we should be actively recruiting from.”
Chief Dudley might be in the driver’s seat with his own set of stops but he’s got a whole pit crew to help him continue down the road.
Chief Dudley will be sworn into his new position officially on January 28.
