Itta Bena's Police Chief Coy Lee Keys has resigned from the police department a little more than a month after taking the job, according to Mayor Thelma Collins.
Keys, who was appointed to the town police chief's position on July 3, will become a field deputy with the Leflore County Sheriff's Department, said Sheriff Ricky Banks.
Banks said Keys was one of three new hires approved Monday for the Sheriff's Department, which are intended to bring the department staffing up to 20 deputies.
The other hires, Banks said, come from the ranks of the Greenwood Police Department. They are Sgt. Bryon O'Bryant, a crime scene investigator with the department, and Officer Gordon Ward, a traffic enforcement officer.
Banks said Keys, O'Bryant and Ward will all serve as field deputies in the Sheriff's Department.
Prior to his appointment, Keys had been interim police chief of Itta Bena for several years. He was selected as chief of the small Delta town following an unsuccessful six-month search by the town's Board of Aldermen to find a chief candidate.
Collins said Keys will be missed. "We really do hate to see him go," she said.
