Houston’s police chief is the featured speaker of the 2015 baccalaureate service at Houston High School.
Jim McNiell, who also serves leadership roles at a local church, will address this year’s graduating class and those attending the annual service at 6 p.m. Sunday inside Hiett Gymnasium. The event will also include performances from the Houston High School choir and band as well as the announcement of the Houston Ministerial Alliance’s scholarship recipient.
A career lawman, McNiell will complete 38 years in law enforcement –– 29 of those in a supervisory capacity –– when he retires as police chief on Oct. 1. He has served five years as leader of the Houston Police Department after 33 years as a member of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
McNiell is the lead deacon at First Baptist Church of Houston, where he and his wife, Wilda, are longtime members. He also directs the AWANA program at the church that ministers to children ages 2 through the fifth grade. The program includes more than 100 workers and children every Wednesday night.
A Tennessee native, McNiell earned a bachelor’s degree from School of the Ozarks. He graduated from the highway patrol’s academy in 1978 and was first assigned to Texas County. McNiell lived in Houston until he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to Sikeston in 1992. He worked as commander of a satellite office there until his retirement from the patrol in May 2010. McNiell returned to Houston that same summer and became police chief in September.
The baccalaureate service is sponsored by the Houston Ministerial Alliance.