Bellmead picks new police chief after 15 months with interim leader

A new Bellmead police chief will start July 5, giving the department its first permanent chief in more than a year.

The Bellmead City Council voted unanimously last week to hire Shawn Myatt, former police chief and assistant city manager for the city of Navasota. Bellmead City Manager Yost Zakhary has served as interim police chief for 15 months, since former Chief Daniel Porter retired after 16 months at the post.

The search for a permanent police chief to fill the position began in December, Zakhary said.

“There were multiple interviews, questionnaires. We did initial interviews then follow-up interviews and then we made a recommendation to the city council,” Zakhary said.

Five department directors narrowed a field of 23 applicants down to their top eight, and ultimately chose Myatt as the most qualified candidate.

Zakhary said it was important to him that he received input from police officers at the department throughout the hiring process. Their comments were valuable because they desired a specific type of leader.

“We’ve hired a lot of new officers and what the officers were looking for was some stability and somebody who was going to come in and not necessarily redo the police department, because it’s actually in very good shape. … (They were looking for) somebody who was going to take it from this point forward and he seemed to be the best fit for it,” Zakhary said. “He comes out of a stable background. He’s been in the same city for about 16 years.”

The police officers in the department are in support of hiring Myatt, Zakhary said.

“According to the officers, this is what they are telling me and what they’ve told the council, the current police department is in the best condition it’s been in the last 14 years,” Zakhary said. “The officers are very content and very happy with the way things are going and they are just looking for somebody to take them to the next level.”

Myatt said it was time for a change after serving Navasota for the last 17 years. He does not believe Bellmead will be a difficult transition, because he has experience with similar cities, Myatt said.

“I just felt like it was a good time for a change in my career,” Myatt said. “I’ve got nearly 25 years as a police chief, so I think just a culmination of the years of service I’ve had, complementing with Bellmead would be great. Most of my career has been (serving) cities about the size, or around the size, of Bellmead. So, I’m pretty familiar with that.”

Myatt said after spending seven years as both an assistant city manager and police chief, he is ready to serve in just a single capacity.

“Most of my career has been a police officer or police chief, and so I’m ready to kind of get back into a single focus of being a police chief.”