Meet the Chief

Bacel Cantrell is stepping into a new role as police chief of Breckenridge Police Department. He brings with him almost 15 years of experience.

Cantrell is a 2002 graduate of Breckenridge High School and started his law enforcement career in 2006.

“I went and talked to Jim Reeves, the sheriff at the time, and he told me, ‘if you’re going to be a police officer, you are going to have to start in the jail. You’ll have to start from the bottom and work your way up,’” Lt. Cantrell said.

Cantrell did just that and worked at the county jail, located at the top of the courthouse.

In 2010, Cantrell worked in juvenile probation as a community supervision officer and received his peace officer license.

“When I got my license, I thought about the different things I could go do, different avenues I could go down, but I just couldn’t leave home,” Cantrell said.

In 2011, he began working in the police department. Cantrell worked his way up the ladder as a patrolman, investigator and Lieutenant for Breckenridge Police Department.

“During one of my last classes in the police academy, retiring police Chief Larry Mahan walked in and he said to me, ‘if you’re going to be a police officer, you’re going to have to do the right thing and you must do it all the time,’” Cantrell said. “‘Your word is everything. Your integrity is everything and if you ever break that, you have lost sight on why you’ve become a police officer.’”

The new police chief promoted two services he believes to be useful to the public; Crime Stoppers and a website called LexisNexis, a community crime map. Cantrell believes these new programs will aid law enforcement in their fight against criminal activity. He is prepared to protect and serve the community.

“God puts you where you need to be and sometimes it’s hard to fight his calling, but this is what I was meant to do, my calling,” Cantrell said.

This is the motto that Chief Bacel Cantrell goes by. This is his proverb.