Covington Police Chief Tim Lentz has resigned from the police department and announced his running for St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Wednesday afternoon.
Lentz released in a statement that it has been a “tremendous honor” to serve as police chief of Covington and is that he leaves the department “a better agency that when I arrived five years ago.”
“At this time, however, I am called to other pursuits that will require my full time and attention,” Lentz said of his resignation. “I have no doubt that whoever succeeds me in this position will inherit an agency that he or she can lead with pride.”
Those other pursuits Lentz referred to in his resignation letter now include running for St. Tammany Parish Sheriff. About an hour after resigning from the police department, he formally announced his running for sheriff at the Covington Business Association meeting Wednesday.
"Before becoming your Chief of Police I spent 30 years at the Sheriff's Office and retired as Chief Deputy in 2013," Lentz said. "Over the last two years I have watched the steady decline of the office: the mishandling of cases; the inability to know the difference between criminal misconduct and honest mistakes; the failure of a tax proposition three different times; and the playing of politics with public safety."
Lentz went on to say that the community deserves a sheriff who cares about them and "who builds relationships, not an enemies list."
"You deserve a sheriff who is highly educated and highly trained - one who already has the resume for the job, not one who is learning, or pretending to learn, as he goes. I will be that sheriff," he said.
