Boston Police Chief Jimmy Peeples is eager to build the agency he has headed since late July.

BOSTON — This Thomas County city’s new police chief has laid the foundation for an all-new Boston Police Department.

Eighteen days into his administration, Chief Jimmy Peeples is building a department in which Boston citizens can take pride.

“We’re building up for the future,” Peeples told the Times-Enterprise Thursday.

The agency has a new staff.

“We’re going to change the way the old regime did things,” the chief explained.

Record management, including evidence, is being changed and updated. Scheduling of officers’ duty is different, and policies and procedures are being rewritten.

A Valdosta native, Peeples, 40, grew up in the Quitman/Boston area. He is a Lowndes County High School graduate.

He and his wife, Amy, have four children.

Peeples worked 13 years with the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office.

“I was a school resource officer, an investigator for four years, and I was on the narcotics team for four years,” he said.

During his 15 years on the Brooks sheriff’s force, he also served on the Search and Recovery Team.

He worked with Thomasville Police Department for two years, then got out of law enforcement to appease his wife’s concerns about dangers in the profession.

He worked in management at Lowe’s for a year and a half — but kept a foot in law enforcement as a part-time officer in Boston.

Peeples, Boston’s fourth chief in recent years, is determined to turn the agency around.

Officers will go to the Panama Plan, in which officers, including the chief, work 12-hour shifts. Boston officers include Capt. Tim Roberts and officers Mark Hickman and Chris Daniell.

The chief, whose annual salary is $37,000, will tend to administrative duties, but he also will be an active officer.

Officers, he said, will be courteous, professional and community oriented.

In describing his goal for the agency, the new chief said, “We’re going to make this police department a beacon in the community.”

Peeples wants Boston Police Department “at the top of the list” with the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office and Thomasville Police Department.

The chief said his agency will work hand-in-hand with the Thomas County/Thomasville Narcotics/Vice Division.

Boston Mayor Danny Groover wants Boston Police Department to be an agency in which the city of about 1,400 can take pride.

“And we feel we have the chief and other police department personnel to bring that about,” the mayor said.

A Boston resident, the chief urged citizens not to hesitate to call 911 about any suspicious person or activity. 911 will dispatch Boston police.

Boston officers will be extremely visible under the new regime.

Said the new chief, “Getting out and being seen is a big deterrent to crime.”

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820.