Officer Mark Miller welcomed to Moulton PD

(Editorial Note: This story was amended as of 10:53 a.m. Thursday, June 30, to make a correction to the final paragraph of this story regardingh permissible travel area for Moulton police officers following a call from Mayor Pro-tem Craig Hughes.)

Moulton’s Interim Police Chief Daniel Beyer announced the arrival of a new police officer in town earlier this month.

Officer Mark Miller, a veteran law enforcement officer with more than two decades of experience, started with Moulton PD in the final week of June 2022. He comes to Moulton from Guadalupe County, where he worked as a sheriff’s deputy for the last 20 years.

“I left my position there to come back home, essentially,” Miller told the newspaper in a phone interview on Monday, June 27. 

While he may have never lived in Moulton personally, his family has for several years now, he said. 

They own land out near the Komensky community, and as they’re getting up in years, Miller said he was looking forward to being closer to them. 

Born and raised in Houston, Miller said he’s known Chief Beyer, his brother David Beyer over at the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, and Moulton Mayor Mark Zimmerman (who is also a sheriff’s deputy in Fayette County) for some years now, having begun his law enforcement career over at Hallettsville Police Department, back when Chief Elmo Grant led the Hallettsville police force.

Miller said he worked a couple years with Hallettsville PD before leaving for Guadalupe County.

“It’s good to be back closer to family,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone here in Moulton.”

With Miller’s hire, Beyer is one man closer to having a full staff. Miller joins the chief, Officer Norma Pritchard and Officer Raul Diaz in Moulton’s four-person department, though Diaz has been out on medical leave for some weeks now. 

Beyer said he will likely look to add a couple more reserve officers in coming weeks. By so doing, he said it will help in scheduling officers to ensure 24/7 coverage in Moulton.

City Council greenlighted a plan earlier this month that would put some figures together on what it might cost to fix up the old Boy Scouts Building, over near the Little League Complex, to serve as a lounge of sorts for local officers, which would serve not unlike the living quarters the city made available to the EMS crews there in Moulton.

As council discussed at their Tuesday, June 14, meeting, Moulton basically shuts down come about 10 p.m. most nights. For the officer working the graveyard shift, especially those who live out of town, it can get mighty quiet out there, most nights.

Having the lounge area, officers would at least have some place to go where they could eat their meals, enjoy a cup of coffee or at least get out of their patrol cars for a while. 

To better accommodate those officers as well, council approved allowing officers use of a take vehcle provided they live withion a 10-miles radius, if the department can do without said vehicle while that officer is away.