Severna Park Resident Named New Annapolis Chief Of Police

Captain Amy Miguez Replaces Chief Edward Jackson

Annapolis Mayor Jared Littmann announced in February that Annapolis Chief of Police Edward Jackson had been removed from command due to differing approaches to management. Immediately after, Littmann named Captain Amy Miguez as the city’s acting chief of police.

A Severna Park resident, Miguez has worked with the Annapolis Police Department for over 20 years, beginning in 2000 as a dispatcher. She held that role for two years before becoming an officer in 2002. Both Miguez and her husband worked for the Annapolis Police Department, commuting from Severna Park to the city.

“It really makes us feel more part of the community, like as far as being close to Annapolis where we work, but then also having our community in Severna Park,” Miguez said.

In addition to being named the acting chief of police, Miguez works as the administrative services captain for the Annapolis Police Department, meeting the necessary requirements from the city charter. She has also held leadership positions throughout the department relating to investigations, patrol, public information and community outreach.

Her role as administrative services captain had prepared her to step in as acting chief of police as it gave her more experience in budgeting and grants. Though with any new position, it comes with its own challenges.

“I’ve actually kind of equated it to having children. You don't really know what you're getting into until it happens,” Miguez said. “Like everyone can give you all the advice and you can read all the books and do all the learning you can, but until it actually happens, you don’t really know what it’s going to be like. So it’s been busy, but I’ve been really enjoying it and hopefully I’ll get the chance to continue doing the job.”

Annapolis has off-year elections with Littmann being sworn into office in December. With shifts in mayoral leadership, department heads are often replaced, which was the reason for the Annapolis Police Department’s new change in leadership.

The process of finding a permanent chief is still ongoing. Once the mayor selects a candidate for the position, he or she has to be confirmed by the city council.

“Our former chief, chief Jackson, brought a lot of good programs to the department, including our re-entry program for returning citizens, and also a cold case investigator looking at some of our older homicide cases that have kind of gotten stuck, to try and work on what we can with the state’s attorney and looking at the cases to see where we can improve those. Those are definitely things I want to continue and strengthen,” Miguez said.

One of her goals is strengthening support for victims of crimes. While many organizations help victims, and there are victim advocates who help in court, Miguez hopes to improve outreach from the department after someone has reported a crime.

In her new role, she has worked on maximizing the resources the Annapolis Police Department has to increase the services provided to the community.

“I would say that our department as a whole, just the people that work here, we’re very dedicated to the safety of the people who will come into our city. That we all work together as a team,” she said. “The more we can work internally, I think the better we are externally.

“When you are dealing with the public, when people are reporting crimes to us, when we’re interacting with people, I think it’s really important for us internally to have the same kind of communication and relationships and respect that we want our officers to have externally,” she said. “I would just say that the sign of a healthy department is those external things that citizens want, but you have to have the internal part too.”