Columbus mayor appoints interim police chief after ouster of Freddie Blackmon

Mayor Skip Henderson has named an interim chief to head the Columbus Police Department.

Stoney Mathis, who has headed other Georgia police departments and has run for office, will start work Monday, said the mayor late Friday afternoon.

He replaces Police Chief Freddie Blackmon, who retired April 30 after accepting a $400,000 severance package.

Mathis has served as chief of the Chattahoochee Hills Police Department and the Fairburn Police Department.

Mathis began his career with the Monroe, Georgia, police department in 1993, and moved in 1995 to the Henry County Police Department, where he rose through the ranks, according to a biography on the Fairburn police website:

• He became a captain in 2002 and ran a drug task force.

• He was promoted to major in 2005.

• He was assistant chief in 2010.

He was appointed chief in Chattahoochee Hills in 2016 and went to Fairburn in 2018.

During Mathis’ time as Fairburn chief from 2018 to 2022, the city saw a 52% reduction in its crime rate, Mayor Henderson noted.

Mathis ran as a Republican last year for Georgia House District 68, losing to Democrat Tish Naghise in the Nov. 8 General Election.

Born in Andrews, N.C., he got his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Lawton, Oklahoma in 1992, and he graduated in 2004 from the Drug Enforcement Administration Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He’s also a 2007 graduate of the University of Louisville’s Southern Police Institute, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.

He completed the two year command college program at Columbus State University in 2011, earning a master’s degree in public administration. He’s a 2017 graduate of the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Leadership Program, and was elected Fourth Vice President of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police in 2020.

His appointment as interim here will not have to be confirmed by a council vote, Henderson said April 6 when Columbus Council approved a $400,000 severance with Blackmon.

“It’s an administrative action taken by the mayor, because it won’t really be the chief,” he said. “It will be the interim chief.”

City leaders expect a national search to recruit a new chief.

The controversy

The appointment follows an April 11 council meeting where replacing Blackmon stirred emotional comment.

Blackmon’s supporters alleged his ouster was racially motivated. He is Columbus’ second Black police chief.

Police Detective Christy Edenfield thanked council for approving Blackmon’s severance package, and suggested Herman Miles, Debra Kennedy or Lance Deaton for interim chief.

Edenfield is the vice president of the Columbus chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, which has been critical of Blackmon in the past. The police officer heading that group, Lt. Ralph Dowe, who is white, has sued the city on claims that he was denied promotion because of his race.

A study by consulting firm Jensen Hughes, which was a catalyst for Blackmon’s departure, relied in part on a survey of FOP members. The Jensen Hughes report found officers complained of low morale, poor communications from leadership, and micromanagement.

Also addressing council April 11 was Marvin Broadwater Sr., who said Assistant Chief Joyce Dent-Fitzpatrick should be promoted to the top slot.

Broadwater organized a rally in support of Blackmon last month and criticized the council’s decision to offer him a severance package.

Broadwater said the key to reducing crime in the area is to consider Blackmon’s strategic plan, which included hiring more officers, increasing supplemental pay and paying officers’ college tuition.

Police study’s findings

The year after council on Nov. 17, 2020, confirmed Blackmon as police chief, the city experienced an abrupt surge in gun violence, reporting a record 70 homicides in 2021.

That dropped to 45 in 2022, after authorities said a gang war subsided.

The police department’s approach to fighting gang violence was criticized in the Jensen Hughes study councilors received in November 2022. These were among the conclusions drawn:

• The department did not effectively track gang activity or share such data across divisions.

• The department’s overall approach to combating gangs was inadequate, as no officer or unit had “robust knowledge or expertise on all of most of the city’s gang factions, leadership, members, areas of influence or criminal activities.”

• The criminal intelligence information given other divisions was of little value.

On the police staffing shortage, the report noted some officers had left for lower paying jobs. While surveying those who remained, the analysts found that “most of those interviewed stressed poor leadership impacted employee morale and was the primary reason for departures.”

Alarmed by the continuing loss of police veterans, Columbus Council demanded Blackmon come up with a plan to address that, after councilors got a Feb. 14 briefing on the study, which echoed a 2021 police study compiled by the Leadership Institute at Columbus State University.

Amid the debate over Blackmon’s leadership, another wave of gun violence erupted.

The city had nine homicides in two weeks, Feb. 15 through Feb. 28. Nine juveniles were wounded in a shooting at a gas station on Feb. 17, making national headlines.

On March 14, Blackmon presented his comprehensive plan for the police department, proposing expanding the force to 572 officers. It had 295 employed at the time, he said.

The mayor offered him a severance package the next day.

Broadwater and other supporters rushed to his defense, holding a rally outside council’s March 28 meeting, alleging the majority-white council was treating him unfairly because of his race.

City leaders were not dissuaded from seeking his ouster, leading to the April 6 severance.