By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Port Royal is on the hunt for a new Chief of Police.
Chief Alan Beach, who was hired to the position in 2012, has decided to retire in September.
Beach was born and raised in Beaufort County, and he began his career as a Beaufort firefighter in 1985 and then joined the Port Royal Police Department in 1987.
“I started out through the ranks. I left the Beaufort City Fire Department and came to Port Royal; at the time we were Public Safety. I love the fire department and I’ve always wanted to be in law enforcement, so it was the best of both worlds, you would think,” Beach said about his start with the Port Royal Police Department. “Back in the day, we were Public Safety, so we actually carried our gear around in the trunk of our police cars, so when we had a fire, we would take off the police hat and put on the firefighter’s hat.”
He said that eventually the City of Beaufort volunteered to add Port Royal to their fire services, so Port Royal Police could just focus on being police officers, which he said made better sense, but he still loved firefighting.
Beach said he did stay on with the Beaufort Fire Department as a volunteer until around 2004.
In his time in Port Royal, Beach has served as a patrolman, a canine officer with a narcotics dog, then he moved into the investigative role and stayed there roughly 10 years.
After that, he transitioned into more administrative roles as a lieutenant and captain.
Beach said that since he has been with the department, Port Royal’s jurisdiction has grown by a lot.
When he began with the department, their jurisdiction went from Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot’s front gate to Mossy Oaks Road, they used to dispatch their own calls and they only had eight officers.
“You’ve seen how much growth Port Royal has had and we now have 27 officers when we are fully staffed,” Beach said.
But while there has been a lot of growth and change, there have also been a lot of things that have stayed the same.
He said that the key to running a police department is having a good staff, and he has been lucky to have that.
“I love Port Royal, obviously, I’ve been there that long,” Beach said. “I don’t want to sound corny, but I just like doing what I do.”
The chief said that he does not like change, and while he has been offered opportunities from other places during his career, he was never tempted to take them because of his love for the job and the town.
Even though Chief Beach says he is not a fan of change, he is looking forward to the next phase of his life as he enters retirement.
The opening for the Chief’s job was posted on June 12, but it was publicly acknowledged during the Wednesday, July 10, Town Council meeting.
He said that he plans to take a month or so off before he tries to find his new “beginning”.
While he and his wife have no plans to relocate from the area, he has not made any serious plans beyond that.
“I do have a honey-do list that I need to get going on,” Beach said.
When asked why he chose now to retire, he said that he wanted to retire while he and his wife are still at an age where they can go and do things and enjoy life, but that did not mean the decision was an easy one.
“It’s the unknown, you have no idea what life is going to hold for you when you retire,” Beach said. “I will miss the job and I will miss the people.”
Town Manager Van Willis said during the meeting that in the near month that the posting had been up, they had received more than 30 resumes for the position and that he and newly appointed Assistant Town Manager Brooke Plank-Buccola would be going through the resumes and pairing them down to a select few before there is to be a public component – introducing the candidates to the public and Port Royal Town Council.
“We’ve got some good candidates, both in the department and outside the department,” Willis told The Island News. “We’ll really dig into that process the first part of August and will probably set up interviews during the month of August.”
Beach’s last day will be September 6, and Willis said that he wants to make sure that there is a decent transition from him to the new chief.
Willis said they plan to put together an interview board, mostly made up of employees, but it may include a few citizens.
Once they get down to three candidates, Willis said they plan to have those candidates meet the public and Town Council to see how the candidates interact with the council and the public at large.
“Ultimately, we’re a council-manager form of government, so the final decision resides with me, relative to the hiring, but certainly I’m going to consider the input of the interview board and my council,” Willis said.
Willis said that he would like to have already hired someone by the time Chief Beach retires, or at least be close to it, but he is confident that the current Port Royal Police officers will be able to assist if they are not able to hire someone before Beach leaves.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
