‘Here to make this better together’: Meet Perry Police Department Chief Alan Everidge

PERRY, Ga. — Alan Everidge is no stranger to leadership; In fact, he was recently named Police Chief of the Perry Police Department at Tuesday’s Council meeting. Now officially police chief, Everidge has actually been in the role for a few months and has been honored to serve his community, continuing on that servitude through the police department.

Everidge’s roots run deep for both his career and his community. Growing up in the county, his family owned a small business in Perry and he graduated from Westfield in 1983.

He has been in Perry for most of his life, and to him, the community is — and always will be— home. He cited great schools, low crime, and close proximity to larger cities like Savannah as some of his reasons why.

“I’ve raised my family here and I’m proud to call ‘Perrydise’ home,” Everidge said.

The community has been a blessing for him, as he explained.

“When you meet people in the street, they’re going to wave, they’re going to speak, they’ll hold the door open for you. It’s about having a good relationship with the community that’s home, and Perry and Houston County are home to me,” Everidge said.

Serving his home county, he’s been in law enforcement for most of his career. After graduating from Westfield, Everidge briefly moved to Atlanta, worked in transportation for a bit, then decided he wanted a different career path.

His next move came about through tragedy. A friend of Everidge was killed by an inmate while working at the Perry Detention Facility. Everidge would move back home and go on to join the Warner Robins Police Department, then work at the Houston County Sheriff’s office for over three decades, working at the same detention facility before retiring.

Everidge returned to law enforcement by joining the Perry Police Department as Captain of the Patrol Division in 2021, then was chosen as interim Police Chief in July of 2022.

When chosen as interim, Everidge humbly admitted that he was shocked, but officially taking on the role was an honor nonetheless.

“I was honored to be chosen. This was never on my radar that I would serve as interim or serve as chief. But God had a different plan, and here I am. I’m really honored to be here and blessed to work with the great folks here in town and here in this police department,” Everidge said.

“There’s a lot of good people here, and I was honored to be asked. I came here with the mindset that we’re here to make this better together and we’ll continue to work to serve the citizens here.”

Now that it’s official, Everidge said he’s letting it all sink in, and using already developed relationships to continue leadership already established through serving as interim.

“It’s easy just to say you’re in charge, but now it’s a different feel. It’s not a dream now, it’s the real deal,” Everidge said.

For those he leads, Everidge said the priority is making sure they’re ahead of the curve on resources, training and direction. Once that is established, he trusts them to do what is needed with the utmost care for respect.

“I’m not a micromanager, but I expect you to be good at the job you are assigned, that you’ve signed up to do, and treat people like you’d want your family member treated by another officer,” Everidge said.

He plans on continuing this priority, explaining that the department has historically trained officers well, adding that they will be expanding training for cases involving mental health issues.

“The more they know, the better service they can provide to the citizens here,” Everidge said.

He also plans on helping bolster the relationship between law enforcement and young people and using the police department as a vessel to encourage them to make good choices.

“Young people are our future, and we need to build relationships with them, where they’ll look at law enforcement one day as a potential career, but also because we serve the community. We’re part of this community and the community is part of us,” Everidge said.

To better serve the community, Everidge is hopeful the department can bring back programs like Neighborhood Watch and Citizen’s Police Academy while continuing to build rapport with the public.

“We want people in the community to feel safe when they go out, whether it be playing or going to work. We want people to feel safe where they can call us if they have a problem, and we’ll try to help solve that problem or help point them in the right direction,” Everidge said.

Finally, Everidge also wants to use technology to stay ahead of the curve, boiling down future plans into a question.

“Criminals are using technology to commit crime and we need to figure out ways to use technology to deter that crime, catch criminals, but also be a force multiplier for us,” Everidge said.

“Our community is growing … I can’t have an officer on every street, so how can we be visible and how can we deter crime and make the department more efficient and more effective for the citizens in this community?”

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