Tuscaloosa Mayor Names 24-Year SWAT Veteran Michael Baygents as New Police Chief

Mayor Walt Maddox has named the city’s next police chief, appointing longtime SWAT Team leader and Tuscaloosa native Randy “Michael” Baygents to head the department.

Maddox announced the decision in a Friday morning press conference attended by members of the city council, former chiefs of police and some of Baygents’ family.

The city said Baygents is a 1994 graduate of Central High School and a 26-year veteran of the Tuscaloosa Police Department, 24 of which he said has been spent on its highly trained Special Response Team, which he now co-commands.

Baygents has worked across multiple wings of the police department, including stints in patrol, training, investigations and more. He also served with the University of Alabama Police Department for four years before joining TPD in 1999.

He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice and justice administration.

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Maddox said 23 people applied for the job after former chief Brent Blankley was named as the city’s Executive Director of Public Safety, and Baygents was selected from a talented pool.

“We were fortunate to have an exceptional pool of candidates, including many from within our own department,” Maddox said. “That speaks to the culture and talent we have within the Tuscaloosa Police Department. At the end of the day, Michael Baygents was the right person to lead this department forward.”

Baygents spoke at a brief press conference Friday before taking questions from reporters at City Hall shortly afterward, and said he believes he’s taking the reins of a department in good shape.

“I was born and raised here and graduated from the Tuscaloosa City School System, and this community has shaped who I am. Tuscaloosa is my home. Serving this city is uniquely personal to me.” Baygents said. “We have a strong foundation here, and my focus is on building on it by supporting our officers and making sure every person in this community feels safe and is treated fairly,”

Since Maddox promoted Blankley in January, TPD has been led by interim chief Severn “Sebo” Sanders, who will return to his role as deputy chief.

Blankley, now tasked with leading both the police and fire departments, praised the hire.

“[Baygents] has done the job at every level - patrol, investigations, SWAT, training,” Blankley said. “The community can expect a chief who holds his officers to a high standard and makes sure every person who interacts with this department is treated with professionalism and respect.”

Baygents, a married father of four, will officially take the job on Monday, May 4th.

One of the biggest challenges he’ll face is fully staffing the police department, which has struggled to recruit and retain the number of officers budgeted for by the city council in recent years.

Baygents said he thinks TPD is moving in the right direction, but hesitated to promise full staffing anytime soon.

“Fully staffed is where we’d like to be, obviously. It’s still difficult, though, because this is a hard job, and I think a lot of the time, police work is misunderstood. Most people go throughout their day, they go back and forth to work, they go home to their families, they don’t think about the things, necessarily, that we have to do,” Baygents said. “In police work, I’ve missed holidays with my family, I’ve missed birthdays, I’ve missed special events because we had to work. We don’t close down. There’s always law enforcement working. The men and women of the police department make tremendous sacrifices to do this job. And a lot of times, people don’t realize how much we miss.”

Baygents shared a story about someone hired as a TPD officer who was trained, outfitted and worked a single shift “on the street” before deciding police work wasn’t for them.

“I can’t tell you how much money was invested in that person through equipment, uniform, training,” Baygents said. “And then he realized real quick this isn’t what he thought it was after one day, and he resigned. So it’s hard to get people to do this job. It’s pretty difficult.”

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