Jackson State University alumnus and longtime Jackson Police Department deputy chief Lindsey Horton has been named the department’s new chief. He will start his new position July 1.
Horton succeeds Chief Rebecca Coleman, who served as JSU’s police chief before taking on the city’s top law enforcement post.
“Jackson State is proud to have another Jacksonian serve such an important position in the City of Jackson,” said JSU President Carolyn W. Meyers. “We congratulate Deputy Chief Horton not only for his service to the city, but for his dedication to his alma mater.”
Horton joined the Jackson Police Department in 1985 and has been the department’s deputy chief for more than a decade. During his tenure with the JPD, Horton served as commander of the JPD S.W.A.T. team and firearms training director. The eighth-degree black belt also taught self-defense classes.
Horton was introduced to taekwondo as a youth, after his brother returned from military service in Korea. He took lessons at the YMCA throughout middle school and high school before enrolling at JSU. A snare drummer in the Sonic Boom of the South marching band and a first-degree black belt, an 18-year-old Horton incorporated taekwondo into his personal workouts and caught the attention of his fellow bandmates. He started the Jackson State University Taekwondo Karate Club in 1971.
In 2011, the Mississippi Legislature issued a resolution congratulating Horton’s 40 years as the Grandmaster Sensei of the JSU Taekwondo Karate Club.
Along with his long tenure with JSU’s Taekwondo Karate Club, Horton serves on the board of the Tiger Fund, which supports JSU’s athletic programs.
– Biographical information provided by The Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Free Press.