BILOXI, Miss.–Charles Britt has been picked as the interim sheriff of Jackson County. Britt, a 25-year veteran of the Biloxi Police Department, will start the job Jan. 6, replacing Mike Byrd, now a convicted felon.
Many in the county and on the coast are seeing the next few months as a time for healing between the various law enforcement agencies and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Dept.
Relationships were damaged during the last year of Byrd’s time in office after he tried to cover up a shooting in the office of the Jackson County Narcotics Task Force. It was after that, that nearly every agency that was part of the Task Force pulled out and Byrd went public with his disgust for them.
It was after that, according to prosecutors, who recently agreed to drop all but one felony county against Byrd, that a string of abuses of power began that led to Byrd’s arrest and conviction by guilty pleas, to the charges that would force him to leave office.
An election for a permanent sheriff will be held in 2014.
