Lavonia Expected to Announce Finalist for Police Chief in March

The City of Lavonia continues its search for a new Police Chief.

Citing a productive recent council and staff retreat, Mayor Courtney Umbehant said Monday night that the process for finding a new Police Chief is continuing as planned.

“One of the things we talked about is the permanent replacement of Bruce Carlisle following his retirement,” he said. “We will hold interviews later this month. And I expect for our March meeting there will be an agenda item to make an appointment for the permanent Chief of Police for the Lavonia Police Department.”

Bruce Carlisle retired as Lavonia’s Police Chief in late November after 22 years on the Lavonia Police force and 14 years as its Chief.

Former Assistant Police Chief Daniel Carson has been serving as the Interim Police Chief since then.

Applications for the job were received through the end of January.

Meantime, there has been a rumor that the college degree requirement for the job had been removed.

WLHR News checked with Mayor Umbehant who said a college degree has never been a requirement for the job of Police Chief and pointed out that former Chief Bruce Carlisle did not have a college degree, and that the current Interim Chief Daniel Carson does have a bachelor’s degree.