PHOTO SUBMITTED Monticello’s newly-elected mayor, Justin Mullins, left, stands with the city’s new police chief, Sterling Allen.

A Monticello lawman who has spent half of his life serving and protecting Lawrence County has been named police chief.

The Monticello Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday night to select Sterling Allen to lead the town’s police department.

Allen, 41, is a 2002 graduate of Lawrence County High School and received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Southern Miss. He worked at the police department for years before joining the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office where he served as a certified criminal investigator.

Allen’s plan is to lead his department with integrity and to have his officers and staff be more involved in the community.

“That’s my goal, to get out there and talk to people, to be active in the community and have an open door for them to come and see me,” he said. “Whatever needs to be done, we’re going to do it.”

But Allen has no plans to be tied to an office chair if he can help it.

“I’m going to have my boots on the ground,” he said. 

Allen is a single dad to son Maddox, 11, and daughter, Dakota, 5, and is focused on creating a safer community for them. He plans to strengthen the relationship between the sheriff’s department and the police department, and is excited to make that happen with his friend, Lawrence County Sheriff Ryan Everett.

“Our relationship goes back for 16 years,” he said. “We plan to have a new relationship (for the departments) better than it’s been before.”

Everett was beaming with pride on his social media post when he congratulated Allen Tuesday. The two men have been through some close calls together fighting crime.

“I trust that man with my life,” he said. “I expect nothing but great things from him, for him and with him.”