The city of Denton has a new chief of police.
Doug Shoemaker was sworn in Monday afternoon at the department’s public safety training center.
Shoemaker beat out 35 applicants for the position and will lead a department of over 200 men and women in uniform. He comes to North Texas from Grand Junction, Colorado, where he was the chief of police and before that Jefferson City, Missouri, where he was part of outreach efforts following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
During his speech, Shoemaker spoke of the importance of building trust in the community.
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“I’m sometimes asked what the role of policing is in society,” he said to the crowd. “It’s to protect the vulnerable from harm. That’s it. That’s our role, to protect the vulnerable from harm. You’ll notice no mention of gender, race, ethnicity, annual income, or any other qualifiers for that statement. It’s because our duties are all beyond that. We swore an oath to protect everyone equally.”
The city's top cop spoke with NBC 5 following the ceremony.
Shoemaker was not ready to publicly comment on his opinion or plan regarding a controversial vote on the November ballot that, if passed by voters, would decriminalize small amounts of weed in some parts of the city.
Shoemaker said he would look to those within the department and the community to continue building trust when tackling crime.
“It’s getting out. It’s getting to meet people. It’s getting to talk to folks and understanding what they expect out of their police,” he said.
Shoemaker told the crowd of officers and city leaders he had big shoes to fill.
Former chief of police Frank Dixon attended Monday’s ceremony. Dixon is now the city’s assistant city manager and director of public safety.
During his leadership, the department launched a new crisis intervention team. The program partners four officers with clinicians to respond to tense encounters involving those suffering mental health problems. The effort came in the wake of the 2020 officer-involved shooting death of UNT student Darius Tarver. Last week, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Denton in Tarver’s death.
