Hernando chief reflects on policing his hometown streets
Hernando’s new police chief, Shane Ellis, has been part of the department for nearly 28 years. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
Shane Ellis is homegrown. Those roots can help, and they can hurt when you are the law in town.
“I’ve had to arrest people I went to school with,” said Ellis, who became Hernando’s police chief 11 weeks ago.
People he’s known a lifetime, on the other hand, may tell him things. Things that prevent crime. Things that solve crime. Things that make the job easier.
“They’ll talk to you quicker than someone they don’t know,” Ellis said.
The Hernando native had served as assistant chief for 15 years when he was tapped to replace retiring Scott Worsham, who had been chief for seven years.
They’d aligned so closely on how to run the department, few changes were expected as Ellis took the top spot (though there have been a few), and that was okay with Mayor Chip Johnson. He said when Ellis was named, he did not need to look elsewhere for a candidate.
Ellis, he said, was “the best person” to head the department of about 50 officers.
Arguably, the mayor and Board of Aldermen may have hired Andy Taylor. The amiable, clever sheriff was played by actor and comedian Andy Griffith against the backdrop of a sleepy town called Mayberry in the 1960s.
“I’ve known Shane since he was a little boy. … He’s level-headed. He’s laid back. He doesn’t give you an air of confrontation,” said Danny Phillips, owner of Brantley Funeral Home in Hernando and a longtime friend of the Ellis family. “I think Andy (Taylor) is a pretty good comparison.”
But if you are thinking of the bumbling lawman that characters on the show imagined Andy Taylor to be — often much to their embarrassment by the end of an episode — then you totally do not know Shane Ellis.
Ellis is a graduate of the prestigious FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, where trainees undergo intense physical drills and advanced schooling in things like investigations, technology and intelligence gathering. He was a detective, often a position officers aspire to attain.
During a recent visit to his office, Ellis, 50, does not elaborate on the glamorous part of his job, however. Instead, he talks of loving the basics.
Patrol. People. Not paperwork.
“I still get out and ride and make stops and make calls with the officers,” he said.
As many kids do, Ellis started his patrol of the streets on a bicycle. He wasn’t a cop then, of course, but he and his buddies knew the way to school, to the Square and the road of dirt and gravel that lead home.
“Sonic was over there where AutoZone is now. The only red lights were on (U.S.) 51,” Ellis said. “It was a great place to grow up.”
In those days, about 3,000 people lived in Hernando, the DeSoto County seat.
Ellis played sports. And then, as high school ended, he happened to do a ride along with a friend in law enforcement. The adrenaline rush felt like the surge of an athletic game.
He was hooked. He’s been with the police department about 28 years.
The department was situated at City Hall when he first joined the Hernando force. Officers didn’t always get an address when dispatched to a call.
“It would be a name, and you’d know where they lived,” Ellis said. “We can still do that today, but it’s not as prevalent.”
The department now shares a building on Elm Street with city court offices.
Hernando is still one of the smallest cities population-wise in DeSoto County (the fourth-largest out of five), but 17,138 people lived there in 2020, according to the U.S. Census. That’s about a 500% increase from around the time Ellis was born.
As the new chief, Ellis has made a few promotions at the department. He also has created a traffic unit to get other officers back patrolling and answering calls quicker.
“This is a chief that if you’re backed up on accidents … he’ll get up out of his chair and back you up,” said Charles Lanphere, who was promoted by Ellis to assistant chief from captain of uniform patrol. “He’s a man of principle. He preaches integrity in all we do.”
Ellis also has overseen the implementation of the police department’s first drone.
“We want to be one of the best in the nation,” Ellis said of the department. “We want to produce a good product and for the citizens to trust us.”
Hernando is not a small town anymore, and yet, it is. Maybe it will seem so as long as people like Ellis use small-town, down-home values to care for their communities.
Topics
Hernando DeSoto County Shane Ellis Hernando Police DepartmentToni Lepeska
Toni Lepeska is a freelance reporter for The Daily Memphian. The 34-year veteran of newspaper journalism is an award-winning essayist and covers a diversity of topics, always seeking to reveal the human story behind the news. Toni, who grew up in Cayce, Mississippi, is a graduate of the University of Mississippi. To learn more, visit tonilepeska.com
Suburbs - North Mississippi on demand
Sign up to receive Suburbs - North Mississippi stories as they’re published.
Enter your e-mail address
Want to comment on our stories or respond to others? Join the conversation by subscribing now. Only paid subscribers can add their thoughts or upvote/downvote comments. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.