PROSPERITY — Prosperity Police Chief David Beddingfield has resigned from his position to pursue another job opportunity.

“He had another offer that had approached him, I think he was ready to go to a different area professionally,” said Mayor Derek Underwood.

Until Beddingfield’s position is filled, Lt. Harry Bodiford will be serving as chief. Underwood said plans are being discussed as to when the position will be filled.

“We have discussed a bit our path and what we are going to do and we’re working up a schedule now to determine a timeline for us to post for a chief position in the near future,” Underwood said. “The schedule we’re doing now is to try and cover the hot times in town, a part of the town is also located in Newberry County and so the Sheriff’s Department covers the town when we don’t have an officer on duty, that’s the way things have always been. We don’t have a definite date set in stone, but the Council did discuss having a date known to the public for us to have that transition. Right now, the rush isn’t to go out and get a chief in the next week, it’s to look at our current situation and be able to have a definite game plan in place before we actually post and decide to do interviews for a new chief.”

Underwood added that Beddingfield will be missed, but credits the department for taking on more duties since Beddingfield’s resignation.

“We miss Chief Beddingfield, he was a good asset for us and he really brought a lot of good qualities and points here, but also we have a good set of officers that he brought in to work for us and they are taking on a lot more duties now and their leadership roles have increased. They are dedicated to making Prosperity successful and part of that is working on our relationships with our county and the other municipalities to be able to ask for assistance when need be,” he said. “Lt. Bodiford has really stepped up to the plate to do a lot of things that the chief was doing at the administrative level and we just look forward to his leadership during this transition period.”

Beddingfield
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_David-Beddingfield.jpegBeddingfield

By Kelly Duncan

kduncan@newberryobserver.com

Reach Kelly Duncan at 803-768-3123 ext. 1868 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.