Published: October 13, 2008 09:36 pm      

Vidor hires new police chief

VIDOR — After more than 10 months of being without an official chief of police, the search is finally over.

Vidor city officials approved the hiring of Charles E. Foerster as the new chief of police of the Vidor Police Department on Monday afternoon.

Before his hiring Monday, Foerster was serving as chief of police for the Colorado City, Texas, which is a city of approximately 4,600 residents. He currently oversees eight officers, one fire marshal, one animal control officer, one administrative coordinator, five dispatchers, one code enforcement officer, a code enforcement laborer and two reserve officers.

“That is one of the main reasons I applied when this position became available,” Foerster said. “It’s a bigger department and a bigger city, and there is a lot going on right now following the hurricane.”

Foerster has been in law enforcement for 16 years, including the past two years as Colorado City police chief, and a total of 10 years administrative experience.

Foerster began his career as a police officer in 1993 with the Marshall Creek Police Department before moving to the San Angelo Police Department where he worked from 1994 until 2004.

The previous chief of police, Steve Conroy, resigned Nov. 30, 2007, to accept a position with another law enforcement agency in the region. Rex Carter, assistant police chief for the Vidor Police Department, has been serving as interim chief of police since then.

City officials immediately began a search for his replacement and received 41 applications by February and eventually narrowed down the list of candidates to five finalists.

However, Vidor city officials opted not to hire any of the original five finalists and began its search anew in mid-July and eventually led to Foerster’s hiring, who, ironically, was one of those five finalists.

According to Ricky Jorgensen, Vidor city manager, the city received 42 applications for the police chief position this summer before narrowing down the candidates and hiring Foerster.

Orange County Sheriff Mike White was even briefly mentioned as a candidate for the position in May after losing his runoff election for the office of Orange County Sheriff to challenger Keith Merritt, but White withdrew his name from consideration for the position at the end of May.



Reach this reporter at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2620 or tmann@orangeleader.com