After serving nearly three decades with the Ardmore Police Department, James Kennedy is relishing his new role as interim police chief.

Barring any changes, he anticipates his appointment will be made official at next month’s joint City Council meeting. He replaces David Whitt who served nearly seven and a half years as chief.

Kennedy began his law enforcement career at Ardmore in 1988.

“I wanted to help people and I wanted to do good,” he said. “It’s a good town and city, and the people here are wonderful. There are good folks here.”

Kennedy stayed on the force as a patrolman until 1994 when he went to TVA as a public safety officer. After a year and a half, he was ready to come back home.

“I went down there … because of the money and it wasn’t like being out on patrol,” he said. “It was more or less like a security-type thing and I didn’t like it as much.”

When Kennedy saw openings at the Ardmore Police Department, he called the chief and asked if he could come back.

“I wanted to go back to where I felt like I could do more good and be hands-on with people,” he said.

Kennedy has been acting as Ardmore chief since Jan. 1 this year and he said he’s satisfied so far.

“I really like it. I’ve made a lot of changes up here and will continue to make more changes,” he said, explaining he’s moved staff around and worked on different schedules.

For a border-town department, Kennedy and his force stay busy.

“We work both states and three counties,” he said. “In Alabama we work Limestone County and in Tennessee, we work Giles County and Lincoln County.”

While most arrests fall under “part of the job,” one sticks out to Kennedy. He caught a suspect involved in a restaurant robbery in Athens and almost had to pull his weapon.

“He reached down to get his gun and he couldn’t get it out of his hidden compartment,” Kennedy said. “If he had pulled it out, I was going to have to stop the threat.”

Though Ardmore is a small town, Kennedy said it has its fair share of crime.

“It’s not Mayberry,” he said. “A lot of people think it is because it’s a small town, but we have crime just like other places. We haven’t had any murders or anything like that, but we have our share of problems.”

When it comes to drug cases, Kennedy relies on help from larger departments.

“We’re a small department and we don’t have the manpower … ,” he said. “But when people call in to report (drug activity), I make sure the proper authorities know so they can work on it.”

One thing Kennedy has learned over the last 29 years as a policeman is that there is no normal.

“When you’re dealing with people, every situation is different,” he said. “You can’t go by one way. You’ve got to go by the law of course, but the hands-on dealing with people is different with everybody. What will work on one might not work with another person.”