HUNTINGTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – Huntington City Council on Monday, Nov. 1, approved Mayor Steve Williams’ appointment of Karl Colder as the next chief of police for the Huntington Police Department.
Colder is a retired federal law enforcement officer with 32 years of career leadership and investigative experience with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Colder was Special Agent in Charge for the DEA’s Washington, D.C., Field Division Office from February 2013 to May 2018. In this role, Colder directed all DEA operations throughout Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Prior to this assignment, Colder was deputy chief inspector for the DEA’s Headquarters Inspections Division, Office of Professional Responsibility, from April 2009 to February 2012. While in this position, Colder led all domestic and foreign administrative and criminal internal affairs program operations at the DEA.
“I have known Karl Colder for more than six years, and he has a highly detailed understanding of the challenges we have faced in recent years, Williams said. “His regional and national awareness from his tenure with the DEA will enable the Huntington Police Department to increase its already-heightened focus on destroying illegal drug traffickers who are peddling poison in our neighborhoods.
“Mr. Colder’s passion to aggressively fight crime in Huntington was evident when he was asked the question, ‘Why Huntington?’ Without hesitation, he responded, ‘I want to finish what I started when I was working in this area with the DEA.’ ”