William Latchford Sworn In as SPD Chief of Police

By FELIX DOBOSZ
Staff Reporter

HOLLYWOOD — As a third generation law enforcement officer, William Latchford said he is proud to honor his grandfather’s legacy as a New York City police officer and his father’s legacy as a New York State Police officer who later went on to serve as police chief for the City of Port Richey, Fla. for 40 years.

Latchford now serves as chief of the Seminole Police Department (SPD) after being sworn in by Chief Public Safety Officer Gerald Wheeler in front of the Tribal Council on June 17. In his new position, Latchford will head a department of 223 employees, with six Native Americans and three Seminoles.

He joined SPD in 1994 as a patrol officer on the Hollywood Reservation. While getting more experienced on the job, he rose steadily through the ranks and accumulated commendations with 12 years of dedicated service in the department.

Latchford left SPD for a couple of years beginning in 2006, when he saw an opportunity to become a commander with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. In early 2008, Latchford heard the chief of SPD position was vacant, and after several calls from Tribal citizens urging him to apply, he presented his credentials to the Tribal Council.

Latchford is married to Tribal citizen Amy Osceola Latchford and has three boys, Brady, Bradley, Brendan, and one girl, Bailey, and said he hopes at least one of his children will follow in his footsteps. The new chief said he considers the Tribe to be an extended family, and said that family in general is very important to him.

“My family is proud of my accomplishments,” he said. “They know that being in law enforcement is a stressful profession; They give me the support, love and care that I need, not only to be successful in law enforcement, but just to be a successful person.”

The Seminole Tribune was granted an exclusive interview with Chief Latchford only a few days after he took the sacred oath of office.

Seminole Tribune: How will you improve SPD?

William Latchford: The foundation that I’m working off is four things. We need to treat people the way we want to be treated. I’m a strong believer in treating people with trust, respect … We need to do what it says on the sides of our cars, ‘Care for Our Communities;’ we need to be leaders in our communities. That’s something that is very important to our job as a whole. The third thing we need to do is build a partnership with the community, we need to work with the community, not against the community. We need to insure that that partnership is strong and is successful.

ST: How do you plan on accomplishing that, chief?

WL: Interaction with the community and community feedback, and being a good listener. You have to get out there and listen to what the needs are of the community. The fourth thing is, just like taking care of the Tribe, we need to take care of our families as individuals or employees of the Tribe. One thing I’ll do as a leader is I want to make sure our employees are focused on families, but include the Seminole Tribe of Florida as their family.

ST: What are some of the projects you have planned for SPD and how will you increase security on Seminole reservations?

WL: I’ve been gone for two years and a lot of things change over time. So what I’ve done is given myself a 90 day transition period so I can assess the organization and determine what programs or projects need to be developed, and what time frame we need to develop them in.

ST: Will you still be preparing safety programs for the elderly, the youth and the communities?

WL: The elders are a very important part of our job; they created the foundation of the Seminole Tribe. They created the foundation that will teach us as the Seminole Police Department how we need to police the communities and the people we serve. The youth are the future of the Seminole Tribe and we need to build a partnership with the youth to give them an opportunity to assist them in being successful in their life.

ST: How do you deal effectively with complaints?

WL: I take complaints very seriously. I believe along with the [police] skills, you need to be a good listener. When complaints come in, we want people to let us know when we’re doing wrong and when we’re doing good. When complaints come in, we have to look at that and ask ourselves what are we doing wrong and what do we need to do better. So when complaints come in we need to look at them as learning experiences that somebody has identified to self assess our actions and policies and how we’re dealing with things in our community to make things better.

ST: What will you do differently than your predecessor did in this top position?

WL: This police department is not about Will Latchford. This police department is about the communities that we serve, and the employees in the police department. My direction that I would like to go with is to build the best partnership that can be built between the police department and the communities on each individual reservation. Our job in law enforcement … it’s not just to enforce state statutes of the law, it’s to be good listeners; to be mentors. Leadership to me starts at the top, everybody from the top, which is me down, becomes a good leader and interaction builds that partnership with the community. I think the future for both parties is endless.