MOULTRIE, Ga. — Visibility and accessibility are two of the priorities for Moultrie’s new interim police chief, with that focus being  brought to bear especially in high-crime areas of the city.

Sean Ladson, sworn in during a Friday ceremony at Moultrie City Hall, said that patrolling the streets and getting the community involved in helping to keep the city safer are the means of implementing those priorities.

“Patrol officers, in my opinion, are the backbone of the police department,” he said during an interview following his swearing-in ceremony. “They’re the first responders to any scene.”

Ladson, who previously headed up the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office’s Drug Enforcement Team, said the plan is a simple one — be seen and listen to the people being served.

“We’re going to do our jobs policing the community and fighting crime,” he said. “While doing our jobs effectively, we’re going to build relationships with the community. I’m going to have an open-door policy (for) any citizen.”

Ladson acknowledged that one issue noted is that patrol shifts have been staffed at three or four officers instead of the seven officers that were on the streets on shift in the past.

“We’re going to be looking into that,” he said. “We’re going to be looking at and targeting high-crime areas. We’ll identify high-crime areas, and, if we can, adding more patrols in those areas.”

The city announced on Thursday that Chief Frank Lang will serve as chief emeritus for the balance of his contract, which is roughly two years.

Lang, who was not at Friday’s ceremony, served in the chief’s role since 2004. In all, Lang has served 41 years in law enforcement.

Ladson, who began his career with the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office as a jailer in 2002, has spent his entire time in law enforcement in the county. He served for a year as director of security at Colquitt Regional Medical Center before returning to the sheriff’s office.

Moultrie Mayor Bill McIntosh said that Lang’s role will be building a relationship with the community, community policing and other agencies with which the police department works, such as the sheriff’s office, and will have an office downtown.

One of the biggest successes of Lang’s tenure as chief was implementation of the Crisis Intervention Team program developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

After the controversial shooting of a Moultrie man with mental health issues, Lang put into effect the program to help officers recognize and deal with individuals with those conditions. Since then, Moultrie police, sheriff’s deputies, Moultrie Fire Department personnel and officers with other local and out-of-county agencies have received that training in Moultrie.

McIntosh said that effort was beneficial and needed in the community.

“I’m glad that we’re getting that training we’re getting, and I want to continue it,” McIntosh told The Observer after the ceremony.

“The chief was retiring in two years. We thought this would be a good time” to bring in an interim chief, he said. “We felt like it would be a good transition at this particular time.”