ORLANDO, Fla. — The city of Cocoa has a new police chief and he is making history, both in the city and across the county.

On Wednesday evening, Mayor Michael C. Blake oversaw a public swearing-in ceremony for Cocoa Police Chief Evander Collier IV. A private ceremony for Collier to accept the oath of office and begin his role was held on, Thursday, April 29.

“I felt that he was genuine and I thought that he would make, and be, a great fit for what we need here in Cocoa today,” said Clarence Whipple, a life-long resident and former District One representative for the city council.

Whipple said he closely watched the public interviews with the chief candidates and thought while they were all good, Collier rose above the rest.

In remarking on the city’s first Black police chief, Whipple spoke with Spectrum News outside of the Harry T. Moore Center, the building that housed the first Black school in Cocoa and the only original Black high school still standing in Brevard County.

“We’ve had many firsts in the city of Cocoa as far as African Americans are concerned. We had the first mayor of color, Michael C. Blake. The second African-American mayor was Jake Williams. We have the first city manager, Stockton Whitten,” Whipple said.

“So diversity, as far as I’m concerned, in the administration is not something that we have a lack of, but there is an undercurrent within the police department. What I mean by that is that they have their own way of doing things that may not fit with the administration,” Whipple said. “And I think this is going to be a challenge for our new police chief. He must be able to communicate from the top down and the bottom up with the people that’s going to go out and represent him as chief and keep our city safe.”

Collier is a more than 30-year veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and according to the Cocoa Police Department, he helped bring a data-driven approach to policing that led to “a 50% reduction in the city’s homicides and 30% to 40% reduction in violent crimes for four consecutive years.”

During one of the public interview sessions, Collier said he wants to make sure that the police department is reflective of the community regarding diversity.

“We have to improve upon hiring African Americans and women, and ensuring that they have paths as well for upward mobility,” Collier said during the March 29 session.

Whipple, who also serves as the Central Brevard chapter president for the NAACP, said on Wednesday that he hopes Collier is able to address some of the long-standing issues brought up by community activists, like what he describes as unsolved cases and complaints of brutality that went unresolved.

“There are things the Mr. Collier is coming into that’s going to take time for him to sort out and get to the bottom of. I’m prayerful that he will be able to weather the storms of adversity amongst the community membership,” Whipple said.

Prior to landing the job, Collier said he wanted the police department to grow closer to the community at large, and said that further improving the city will take cooperation across the board.

“The nature of police work has changed. We cannot solve all the problems by ourselves. We have to have community involvement, we have to have those relationships, they have to trust us and we’re going to be accountable. 'Cause I won’t tolerate anything less than that,” Collier said.