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Longtime
Orange Police Chief Sam Kittrell, 57, has announced his retirement
from the position at the end of the year.
Kittrell told KOGT he told the mayor about his plans two weeks ago
and had set Wednesday as the day to announce the retirement. He said
the decision is not related to the Monday evening incident in which
an off-duty Orange police officer shot and killed a man outside a
business.
The chief said he will stay on the job until his replacement is
hired. “I want to work out a transition,” he said.
Under the Orange city government, the city manager recommends a new
chief and then City Council will vote on the selection.
Kittrell is an Orange native and 1970 graduate of Lutcher Stark
High. He started his law enforcement career as a jailer with the
Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 15, 1973, when he was 20
years old, he said.
He then moved to patrol for the sheriff’s office and has recalled
times when radio transmissions to dispatchers and other deputies
didn’t work in areas in north Vidor when he was on patrol.
These days, patrol cars carry computers with internet service, in
addition to car radios and small radios hooked onto uniforms.
Kittrell then joined the Vidor Police Department as a patrol officer
and worked up to the position of assistant police chief.
Orange hired him as police chief in May 1987 and he took office on
June 1 that year. After taking the job as chief, he renewed taking
classes at Lamar University and completed his bachelor’s degree in
criminal justice.
Kittrell’s accomplishments as Orange chief include overseeing the
planning and construction of the new, two-story police station in
downtown, which opened in 2001.
One of Kittrell’s murder investigations in Vidor led to him becoming
nationally known in 1988 when director-writer Errol Morris
prominently featured Kittrell in his documentary “The Thin Blue
Line” about the 1976 murder of a Dallas police officer.
Kittrell got a confession from a 17-year-old from Vidor, who
implicated another man in the cop killing. Kittrell also recovered
the gun used in the shooting.
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