South Fulton has picked a sitting U.S. marshal to run its police department, tapping Chrissie C. Latimore, who currently serves as the U.S. marshal for the federal District of South Carolina, to become the city's next chief. She is scheduled to officially take command of the South Fulton Police Department on Oct. 22, becoming the third person to hold the job in the department's nine-year history.
Yahoo News reported Latimore's selection after former Chief Keith Meadows retired. Latimore brings more than 25 years of local, state and federal law enforcement experience, a resume that spans patrol work, federal investigations and military service. As U.S. marshal, she currently oversees more than 200 employees and 115 deputized court security officers, a workforce comparable in size to the department she is about to inherit.
South Fulton's police force has 306 authorized personnel, a $33.3 million operating budget and a jurisdiction of more than 115,000 residents, per the same report. Mayor Carmalitha Gumbs said the appointment marks an important new chapter for public safety in the city, adding that residents and officers deserve strong, stable leadership focused on professionalism, accountability and community trust. Gumbs also said Latimore brings significant experience and understands how to build and lead a department prepared for the future.
A Career Built Across Local, State and Federal Lines
Latimore's path to the chief's office runs through the Laurens, South Carolina, police department, where she held the roles of patrol lieutenant, administrative captain, assistant chief and, eventually, police chief, according to Yahoo News. She also worked as a special agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division before her current federal post. Her military record includes service as a military police officer in the U.S. Army, with continued service in the Army Reserve.
That blend of local command experience and federal oversight is central to how the city is framing the hire. South Fulton's search had been underway for months, driven by the sudden exit of its former top cop and a department still working through the fallout of an outside review.
The Exit That Set Off the Search
Meadows officially retired as South Fulton's police chief on Dec. 30, 2025, amid lawsuits and an internal investigation, a departure first reported by Atlanta News First in January. The South Fulton City Council approved his retirement package in January, and the city's internal review examined promotions, complaint handling, department protocols, human-resources policies and disciplinary procedures — though the findings had not been made public when that report was published. Several lawsuits alleged a toxic environment within the police department.
Accounts of exactly how many lawsuits remained active diverge. WSB-TV reported at least three lawsuits had been filed against the city and the police chief, while FOX 5 Atlanta reported four pending wrongful-termination lawsuits alleging sexual discrimination and retaliation remained active against the department. FOX 5 also reported that the nationwide search for a new chief followed a 5-2 City Council vote approving the retirement settlement with Meadows.
Interim Leadership and a Separate Review's Findings
While South Fulton searched for a permanent replacement, Dr. Cedric Alexander was appointed interim managing public safety director, WSB-TV reported. Alexander was scheduled to depart in May 2026 and has agreed, per city officials, to remain available to Latimore as needed to support continuity and a smooth leadership transition; he will also develop a leadership transition plan for the incoming chief.
Separately, an independent administrative review of the department found it had been operating under outdated, overly complex and inconsistently applied policies, Hoodline previously reported. That review found an early-warning system for officer conduct existed but was not actively used, and that internal-affairs cases were tracked by hand. Reviewers recommended a standalone internal-affairs policy, clear promotion criteria and set thresholds for handling personnel matters administratively, and city officials said they intended to carry out a comprehensive rewrite of general orders, internal-affairs procedures and promotion processes.
The department itself is young by law-enforcement standards, having been formed in 2018 for the newly incorporated city, according to Atlanta News First's earlier reporting. Latimore now steps into a role shaped by that short history and the turbulence of the past year, with city officials framing her priority as building trust with both officers and the community once she takes over on Oct. 22.
