Ricky King sworn into City of Center Chief of Police position for the Center Police Department at the beginning of April 2025.
July 16, 2025 - Just over 100 days into a new chapter for the Center Police Department has seen changes in promotions and organization.
At the beginning of April, the City of Center Municipal Court Judge Grover Russell performed an official swearing in ceremony for Ricky King as the new Chief of Police for the City of Center's Police Department following the retirement of Chief Jim Albers.
With his wife, Denny, by his side, King recited the pledge of office, “I, Ricky King, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Chief of Police of the City of Center, Texas and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the constitution and laws of the United States and of this State so help me God.”
Chief Ricky King began his career with the Center Police Department in December 2003, after his graduation from the Angelina College Police Academy. King started as a patrol officer, working all four patrol shifts, in 2006 he was promoted to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), where his primary responsibility was investigation of crimes against children. After two years in CID, Detective King was tasked with starting the first narcotics investigation unit for the Center Police Department, where he worked in the undercover capacity for several years. In 2010 he obtained his SWAT training and held the position of SWAT Commander. Officer King was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 2012, becoming responsible for the supervision of a patrol shift and the narcotics division. In 2022, King was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and commanded the patrol and criminal investigation divisions. In April of 2024, he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Chief responsible for budgeting and the operations of all staff of the department.
Chief King advised his wants and goals are to provide the officers with the equipment and training that's necessary to do the job in an environment that demands professionalism and transparency. He shared, “We're going to be an agency that the citizens know and trust, and they can come and talk to us and they know that we're going to do the right thing.”
Police Chief King spoke about his predecessor, Jim Albers. He recalled when Albers first came to Center and the concern the department had with an unknown coming in. With an overall feeling of relief at the department he described, “We got a guy that cared about the people that worked for him. He created right off the bat, a family environment. It was so obvious. I think that makes our agency different than others because when officers come here, that are from a different agency, they instantly see that family mentality environment, and it's almost impossible to leave. I credit him for that. He brought that here, and I intend to continue it.
“Albers was a good leader. I was a detective, and at the time, really all I knew was how to investigate narcotics cases. I loved it, and that's all I wanted to learn how to do. He turned me into an administrator and it was a long process. It's different. It's a total different job than what I had. But I appreciate what he did for us and it was difficult to see him leave.”
From left: Lt. Andrew Williams, Lt. Billy Lusk, Sgt. Donna Ruppert, and Chief Ricky King
Seven weeks into Chief Kings leadership, the first set of promotions were done. “With new leadership comes new ideas, goals, and structures, and commitments. I had a few years to think about what I thought would be the best thing to do moving forward and what was the highest in priority. I started with the department structure, we have a solid foundation in patrol and we had good supervision but I wanted a little more.
“This move ensures that we’ll have 24/7 supervision and creating the opportunity for leadership roles to focus solely on their divisions. The leaders that we chose to captain this ship determines success or failure on my part and I have no doubt in the people that we chose to do this.”
Lieutenant Andrew Williams spoke about the structural changes, “We wanted to divide the house. Have a lieutenant over patrol and an administrative lieutenant to handle CID (Criminal Investigative Division) and to assist the chief in day to day activities and operations. Well, we still needed one more sergeant.” He then announced the promotion of Donna Ruppert to sergeant and Billy Lusk to lieutenant over Patrol. Both have helped to move the new vision for the department forward. “I don’t think we could have picked two better people to take over these new leadership roles in our agency.” Lieutenant Williams had the honor to pin on the new Sergeant badge for Ruppert. Chief King had the honor to pin on the new Lieutenant badge and bars for Lusk.
From left: Lt. Andrew Williams, Chief Administrative Assistant Amy Lindley, Municipal Court Administrator Donna Dugger, Detective Garrett Rocchi, Dispatch Supervisor Charlene Jackson, and Chief Ricky King
Additional recognitions and changes made included Charlene Jackson promoted from dispatcher to Dispatch Supervisor; Donna Dugger moved from Administrative Assistant to Municipal Court Administrator; and Amy Lindley from dispatch to Chief Administrative Assistant.
Chief King started by speaking in regards to Donna Dugger, “I’m proud to announce the new promotions I have filled; some of these recognitions are way overdue. I have a court administrator who has been serving in one capacity or another for over 34 years. Everything from dispatch to administrative assistant, records clerk, TCOLE Compliance, dispatching supervisor, and I believe she even built some case files for detectives for prosecution and did some department scheduling as well - that has turned into about six different jobs here.”
Concerning Charlene Jackson he shared, “I also have a dispatcher who has served for right at 30 years and been part of the backbone of crucial information distribution within this department. This person has shown great leadership skills and a very strong work ethic.”
Next, Chief King spoke about Amy Lindley, “Also, I have a dispatcher who has been here over 20 years, we started at the same time, that has been very helpful with some of Donna’s overloaded work load. She did this without hesitation or any recognition. So, we are here today to do just that - we want to recognize our All-stars.”
Lt. Williams spoke first about Dugger, “So, like the Chief just said, Donna [Dugger] has held just about every position here that doesn’t require a gun and a badge. So, she knows every one of us here. She’s raised Ricky [King] and myself and a lot of the other people here. She took it upon herself to go to the courts, become the Court Clerk I, then obtain her Court Clerk II certifications and licensing and she oversees everything that happens on the court side. There is a lot that goes into that which a lot of the officers don’t know about.”
He then spoke about Jackson and Lindley, “Charlene [Jackson] has stepped up and taken on the supervisory role in communications to assist the day to day workload with Donna which has really helped take some of the stress off Donna but then she added new stress in the courts. And then just recently, Amy [Lindley] has transitioned from her position, dispatch/records clerk, to the administrator for the department. She does everything from keeping the Chief on track, which we all know is a very tough job, but now she gets to keep me on track as well and I get blamed for working her harder than the Chief does.”
In summary, Lt. Williams said, “We couldn’t do it without the three women that we’ve recognized today. They really keep everything on track within the department. Without them, we would be lost.”
The final promotion was Garrett Rocchi from Patrol to Detective. Chief King shared, “This one, because it’s different for me, I was responsible for hiring this officer. I sat on the interview board, I got to ask him questions, and I said ‘Hey, where do you see yourself in five years?’ Most people are like, ‘ugh…’ you know because they are not ready for that question. This guy fresh out of the academy, with no experience whatsoever, didn’t bat an eye and looked at me and said ‘Oh, I’m gonna be a detective’ and I got to watch him achieve that goal today.”
