Town of Rutherford welcomes new police chief

RUTHERFORD, Tenn. — After interviewing candidate after candidate, one community welcomes a new addition.

Rutherford welcomed their new police chief, Nicholas Milan, to serve and protect their community.

“It feels pretty good. This is my second time interviewing the past six months, so it feels pretty good,” said Milan.

Rutherford has been trying to fill this position after their former chief left in November of 2024.

“With a small department you don’t have the candidates that you do in a larger department because they’re looking for larger departments and they’re looking for more money,” said Mayor Sandy Simpson.

The qualities that the deciding board were looking for was someone who is community oriented with strong leadership qualities.

“Leadership, we have had a lack of leadership here and we need a strong person that’s going to be a leader and get our department back in line where it needs to be,” said Milan.

After interviewing other candidates the board selected Milan as the new chief.

“Nick interviewed real strong and he has a lot of connections in our area that’s going to help build our police department up. I think he has a good rapport with the other officers in our area that will help our department move forward in a positive direction,” said Mayor Simpson.

Milan shares that this moment was worth it but the journey was stressful.

“It’s pretty stressful from the beginning but it’s all worth it at the end, I’m glad I got the job,” said Milan.

He has served in Rutherford in the past along with Dyer and Gibson County Sheriff’s Department. Knowing that leadership was a quality they were wanting, he is ready to implement that along with recruiting.

“Mostly getting the police department covered. We need more officers, I will be dealing with that in the future,” said Milan.

Mayor Simpson is glad to have Police Chief Milan and hopes he does well in the position.

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