Demopolis police chief named public safety director

Demopolis Police Chief Rex Flowers has been named the city’s public safety director.

Demopolis Mayor Woody Collins said the move will give Flowers, who has more than 30 years of service, “a gracious amount of time” to select a new police chief.  

“(Flowers) has been so gracious to hang around here with me, and I’m thrilled to death to have him, but at some point, he’s going to retire,” Collins said. “The police chief is such a critical job, I wanted to put him in (the public safety director) position so he can start looking for a chief to follow him.”

Flowers has been chief since 2019. Collins has been mayor for five years, and he has another four years coming because he faced no opposition in the August election.

The public safety director position was not filled when Collins moved Flowers into it, but the position has been used at least twice in the past, Collins said. The position is over both the police and fire departments.

Collins said succession planning is important to Demopolis because a half dozen other critical employees, including the fire chief, city clerk and head of the parks and recreation department, also have around 30 years of service.

“They’re not fixing to (leave). I’ve got a good working relationship with all of them,” Collins said of the long-tenured employees. “We just don’t want to leave the city high and dry when they go to the house.”