Irving's New Police Chief Derick Miller Takes Oath and Makes History

Tuesday morning Derick Miller became the 11th police chief for the city of Irving and was sworn-in to take lead as head of the Irving Police department after a nationwide search.

In front of city leaders, community members and family, Miller took the oath of office. His two children then pinned on his new badge.

It was also a historic moment for the city, as this is the first time Irving has appointed a Black police chief.

Miller, who is a Benbrook native, joined the Carrollton Police Department in 1992 as a reserve officer. He worked his way up and became Carrollton's police chief in 2017. He is also an adjunct professor at UT Arlington, the DFW Major City Police Chiefs Association president, and a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

The new chief laid out his top priorities to focus on as he starts his new journey with the department. He first listed off community engagement as a top focus.

“We will grow our existing relationships and we will foster new ones and we will accelerate our community engagement like we’ve never done before, and together we will protect our community" said Miller during the ceremony.

“We will protect the vulnerable from harm, we will safeguard the innocent from injury, and we will always place ourselves in harm’s way when necessary to protect," he continued.

Miller said he plans to accomplish this with progressive and accomplish progressive and meaningful police approaches.

The new chief also outlined his goals to focus internally on the department and make sure there's success with good communication, connection and presence with all department employees.

After taking the oath, Miller also quoted Nelson Mandela.

"It goes like this -- 'there is no passion to be found by playing small, settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of.' So with that, I will tell you thank you very much. I am so excited to get started finally, so let's get to work -- thank you," he said.

Miller was recently a finalist in Fort Worth when the city was looking for a new chief, but they ultimately decided to promote someone from within.

He is replacing former Chief Jeff Spivey, who retired at the beginning of the year.

Community Reaction

Anthony Bond, a community activist in Irving and founder of the NAACP Irving Chapter, said Tuesday was significant for him personally in regards to the history that was made.

"It's a long time coming for the city of Irving to have the first African American, Black, police chief," said Bond who has been in Irving for 34 years.

“I’m proud and very grateful, to be honest with you I’m overjoyed, I can’t wait to meet him. Our city has come a long way," said Bond.

He said he's grateful to the city manager, mayor and city council members for choosing who they felt was the right person to lead Irving.

Bond didn't mince words though, saying he expects to have an open and honest relationship with the new chief as he has with others over the last three decades.

"I'm going to ask him to do the same thing I've always asked the other ones (chiefs) to do, treat everybody that comes into your custody, treat them equally and fairly," said Bond.

Communication is something Bond believes the department needs work on and says he believes that will be Miller's biggest challenge.

"I pray that God works through this police chief to embrace our diversity, to reach out and really do what we call community policing," expressed Bond.

Meanwhile Carlos Quintanilla, a North Texas community activist shed his thoughts on what he would like to see with the new leadership.

“I think there needs to be continuation of community interaction there has to be meetings with community organizations and leaders there has to be a strong commitment to increase the number of Latino police officers," said Quintanilla. "There has to be some understanding of the impact of immigration and how it’s affecting immigrants and there has to be a drastic change that when someone gets arrested, that Irving does not place in detainer for minor offenses, for traffic offenses, for non-felony offenses which is a critical issue in our community for individuals who are arrested for minor non-felony offenses."

Quintanilla is referring to controversial program from more than ten years ago.

Fatema Biviji, an Irving resident who is chair of the Irving Parks and Rec Board, part of the League of Woman Voters in Irving, lead coordinator of the Friends of Irving Gardens butterfly group said she looks forward to Miller stepping in with his new role.

"I'm hoping that Chief Miller will build off the wonderful foundation left behind by the chiefs that came before him," said Biviji.

She said she interacted with him two years ago during a town hall meeting in 2020. "The feeling I got is that he's very personable and approachable and a community builder, so I'm really excited about that," expressed Biviji.