MUSKEGON, Mich. — The city of Muskegon hosted a meet and greet Thursday evening with the two candidates in the running for director of the Department of Public Safety.
This public introduction of Tim Kozal and Derrick Turner follows their final interviews and meetings with community leaders.
Both candidates have extensive experience in the field of public safety and both worked with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety in the past.
Kozal is the current Ludington police chief who has been leading the department since 2020.
"I've loved the public safety aspect of law enforcement, as I like to say, carrying a gun and hose, so that's what interested me in applying for the position," Kozal told FOX 17 Thursday.
Before then, Kozal served as director of public safety in Manistee for three years.
"I'll be drinking from a fire hose for awhile, trying to get to know as much as I can about the departments, because it's not just the police and fire, but it's also inspections, you know, it's also a safety belt I have oversight over," Kozal added.
In Manistee, he oversaw both the police and fire departments, which is similar to the job he’s vying for in Muskegon.
"You need to give time to both divisions. They need to know that you're part of them, that you trust," Kozal said.
Turner is the current chief of police at the Mobile Airport Authority in Alabama.
He hopes to return to his home roots in Michigan, where he served as a sergeant for ten years.
"My hope here in Muskegon is, you know, I can come in and truly make an impact. What I mean by that is, I'm very big on relationship building," Turner told FOX 17 Thursday. "Day one, it's going to be nothing but listening, you know. I need to understand what challenges people are facing. I need to understand what concerns people have, and that goes not only internally, but externally."
FOX 17 learned that Turner was reprimanded for the use of force during an incident in Kalamazoo in 2017, while serving with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
Body cam video shows Turner grabbing someone by the throat.
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The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety did condemn Turner’s actions but added that the person he grabbed was threatening Turner at the time.
FOX 17 asked Turner about this incident at Thursday’s meet and greet.
Turner responded with the following:
“What I would say about that is, you know, having been through that situation, you know, an improper use of force, not excessive, but improper, I understand the dynamics that go through in a critical situation, so I can speak to my staff about what that looks like. You know, how do we train to avoid that in a sense. I can never say never because certainly, we don’t predict the future and say it won’t happen here, but if it did happen here, what I can tell you is we would already have those relationships formed and built, as I did when I had my incident, to prevent some of the things we saw, I would think, in late times in our climate here, particularly in 2020. So certainly, I would say, again, going back to day one, those relationships are important. Those are so important because when that type of thing happens, they would know who you are as a department and trust our character.”
All throughout the United States, both public safety sectors, police and fire, desperately are looking for recruits.
Turner and Kozal both agree that they're ready to do what they can to bring first responders to Muskegon.
"Maybe it's a situation where we have to, we'll put them through, we'll train them, you know. Then you can start looking at trying to hire, you know, people that [have] grown up here in the city," Kozal said.
"It's not just us seeking that talent, and how do we keep that talent. If we get them in, how we develop them, so that's important, so really for me, it's going to be about recruiting and retaining that talent that we want," Turner added.
Stay with FOX 17 News for updates on which candidate Muskegon picks to lead its Department of Public Safety.
