Story and Photos by Keith Burton - GCN  9/17/08

With all the pomp and ceremony the small city of D'Iberville could muster, history was made Tuesday at City Hall when 15 officers of D'Iberville's brand-new police department were sworn-in. The officers, outfitted in new uniforms complete with the department's new badges and raising their right hands, took the oath as delivered by D'Iberville Mayor Rusty Quave.

The new department officially activates on Oct. 1. Since the city was established in 1988, law enforcement duties were contracted by the city with the Harrison County Sheriff. With the recent expansion of the city's tax base, as a result of the new shopping centers along I-10, the city could afford to establish its own police department. The city hired Wayne Payne who has years of experience in law enforcement on the Coast as chief of police a year ago to build the city's new department.

"It's a very historic day," said Chief Payne.

Payne chose the officers, uniforms, the arm patch, the badges and the design of the police cars, painted with the D'Iberville school colors.

"All these are fully trained police officers," Payne said. "They all have the academy behind them. A lot of them have a number of years of experience," and he said many of the officers left their jobs with sheriff departments and jails to join the D'Iberville Police.

"It's very seldom that you get to start something from the ground up and build on it," and Payne said that attracted the experienced applicants.

Also on hand for the swearing-in was the department's canine officer Zeus.