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West Virginia State Police interim leader makes first public appearance

Interim West Virginia State Police Superintendent Jack Chambers

CHARLESTON — Making his first appearance before the public since his appointment Monday, interim West Virginia State Police Superintendent Jack Chambers said he would begin working to clean up the agency’s tarnished image after a recent series of scandals.

“West Virginia, I want you to know that the West Virginia State Police will not give up on you. I promise,” Chambers said Wednesday afternoon during Gov. Jim Justice’s weekly virtual administration briefing from the State Capitol Building.

Chambers, who previously was deputy director of the West Virginia Capitol Police within the Department of Homeland Security, was appointed by Justice as interim State Police superintendent Monday following the abrupt resignation of Jan Cahill who held that position since Justice took office in 2017.

Chambers has 26 years of experience in law enforcement with both the Capitol Police and the State Police, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

“First of all, I want to thank the governor for having faith in me and appointing me to this interim position,” Chambers said.

Cahill’s resignation comes after Justice was presented the results of an internal investigation of top leadership of the State Police after the Governor’s Office was made aware of an anonymous letter seven months ago.

Allegations confirmed by Justice Monday included the placing of cameras inside the women’s locker room at the State Police Academy in Institute and the destruction of video evidence; and the theft of money from a patron at Mardi Gras Casino and Resort in Nitro by two State Police troopers who were not fired when brought to Cahill’s attention; and an ongoing investigation into the death of a Hagerstown man along I-81 after being Tazed by troopers.

Other allegations in the anonymous letter, first reported by WCHS-TV, included the use of ghost accounts to get around state purchasing rules, misuse of state purchasing cards for personal purchases, extramarital affairs between officers and fights, misuse of federal grants, overtime abuse and more.

Justice ordered Chambers to take the results of the investigation conducted by Department of Homeland Security Cabinet Secretary Jeff Sandy and investigate further into alleged actions by State Police top brass. Chambers asked the public to give him time.

“I’m going to look at every position that is appointed in the State Police and evaluate those,” Chambers said. “I have to get some information from everybody first. I can’t give you a timetable to be honest with you. This is going to take some time. I’ve only been down there one day.”

Chambers said he will conduct a thorough review of the State Police and remove any corruption and wrongdoing. But he also said it was important to restore morale within the state’s top law enforcement agency.

“I will be looking at stuff, evaluating stuff, and re-visiting investigations and issues that we have,” Chambers said. “I do want to say and I want to say it early: we have a great bunch of people at the West Virginia State Police. Right now … there’s a lot of wondering on their faces. I’m going to do my best to help change that.

“We do a lot of good things,” Chambers continued. “We’ve got a couple of hiccups right now and we’ve got a couple of things going on that will be addressed and looked at. And hopefully, this won’t happen in the future. We’re going to have mishaps, but we will look into everything that comes my way and see that it does come my way and address with the people that I have. That’s for my uniformed members and all civilians.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.

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