The town of Bartonville has selected its next police chief.
Kirk Riggs, the current police chief in Jersey Village — a suburb of Houston — has been selected as Bartonville’s next police chief. He replaces Bobby Dowell, who resigned in September 2023 after a decade with Bartonville PD, the last six years as its chief of police. Soon after Dowell’s resignation, the town brought in Wendell Mitchell, an assistant chief with the Flower Mound Police Department, on an interim basis to oversee Bartonville PD and help with the search for the next permanent chief.
The town used Sierra Delta to recruit candidates for the position and received 27 applicants, according to Mayor Jaclyn Carrington. Riggs was ultimately selected, and he brings over 40 years of experience in law enforcement to the department. According to Blue Ribbon News, a Rockwall newspaper, Riggs spent 25 years at the city of Farmers Branch, rising to the rank of deputy chief, before he was hired as assistant chief in Rockwall in 2006. He became police chief in Rockwall in 2015, and retired in 2019. Later that year, he joined the Jersey City Police Department as interim chief, then was named the permanent police chief in 2020, according to the Houston Chronicle. It was announced earlier this month that he would retire this spring from that position.
A welcome reception for Riggs is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at Bartonville Town Hall.
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