Pensacola Chief of Police Eric Winstrom has selected Matthew Coverdale as his new deputy chief.
Coverdale was hired as a police officer on Aug. 23, 2004, promoted to sergeant in December 2013, lieutenant in May 2017 and captain in December 2021. His assignments have included Uniform Patrol, field training officer/sergeant, Investigations, Vice & Narcotics, Community Oriented Policing Services, and SWAT, according to his PPD bio.
He has received a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, a Unit Citation, was twice named Officer of the Month, has received three letters of commendation from the department as well as a U.S. Attorney’s Award.
Winstrom cited Coverdale’s breadth of experience, his depth of institutional knowledge and his forward-looking vision for the department as key factors in his selection.
“We had four exceptional captains to draw from, all very qualified, all with a ton of experience. Matt is currently the administrative captain. We’ve been working extremely hard together since I got here, hitting the ground running, and he has the same vision as I do about uplifting the police department and modernizing it with our records management system, our forensics, even our building and our vehicles—everything,” Winstrom said.
Winstrom said he couldn’t have gone wrong with any of his four captains and they were all great candidates, but he said his decision ultimately came down to not only which candidate was the best fit to work alongside him, but also who was the best fit for the direction the department is going.
“He’s got the vast diverse, experience,” Winstrom said of Coverdale. “Everything from operational units—he was previously captain of Patrol, so pretty much everybody that wears the uniform he was supervising—and now as captain of administration, it’s a whole other skill set that you have to develop to understand things like how our 911 center works, how our records management system works, the records unit. Things that oftentimes get overlooked in policing, but are vital to keeping the police department going, are vital for ensuring the trust of the public.”
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves named Winstrom as his top pick to lead the department in early February after asking former Chief Eric Randall to resign citing a loss of confidence in his leadership from rank and file officers.
In Winstrom’s initial months at the PPD, he’s focused on assessing the current operations of the department and determining what changes can best help take the agency to greater heights.
“The one fear that any new, outside police chief has is that they’re going to come in and see that the personnel are not capable of excelling at the job,” Winstrom said. “And I see that I’ve inherited an excellent group of men and women, and if anything, they just need to be supported more to do their job. They’re already doing a fantastic job, so Matt is going to be instrumental as deputy chief in helping me support them more to do their job.”
Winstrom has listed training, transparency and building trust inside and outside the building as his top priorities. He has begun working to create a public-facing data dashboard so that citizens can monitor crime data in real time, is exploring ways to modernize the department’s data management systems to make them more efficient and transparent, and is also exploring ways to modernize the department’s vehicles to be safer and more economical.
He said his goal is for the department’s personnel to come to work confident they are the best trained, best equipped and most supported, and that Coverdale is aligned with him.
“As I’ve been here to two months, I noticed that Matt is really putting 110% effort into making sure that not only does the police department function well, but is headed in a direction that it’s going to improve and progress for not only the community and the city, but also make it a better police department for the men and women who work there,” Winstrom said. “That’s going to be key to retention and key to recruiting, and key to making sure we have the best police officers, which I think we already do, but we’re going to make sure that that continues, and that we get even better.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Matthew Coverdale named deputy chief of Pensacola Police Department
Reporting by Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
