January Guest Speaker: Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin

Paul A. Irwin Jr. has been the Police Chief for the City of Leeds since December of 2021 and served as the Police Chief of Pell City for five years. He has been married for 24 years to Beth Irwin who is a preschool teacher at Victory Christian School. He has two daughters and two sons. Amber who has her own salon and Anthony is in his last year of Law School at the University of Alabama. Anna attends Jefferson State and teaches Gymnastic and Alex attends Victory Christian School.

In 1989, He entered the United States Marine Corps and participated in Operation Desert Storm, Hurricane Andrew Relief and Sea Service Deployments. He was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps from Active Duty in May of 1993 and ended reserve status in January of 1997. During his enlistment, he reached the rank of Corporal and received multiple Sea Service deployment awards, Meritorious Unit Citation, Naval Unit Citation, National Defense Service, South East Asia Service Medal and Good Conduct Medal. He was hired by the Birmingham Police Department on February 7, 1994 and retired May 31, 2017 at the Rank of Captain. He was awarded the Medal of Valor in 1997, South Precinct Neighborhood Block Watch Outstanding Officer of the Year in 1999, Combat Cross in 1999, Mayor’s Community Relations Committee Outstanding Officer of the Year for South Precinct in 2000, Alabama Legislative Medal of Honor in 2004, Life Saving Medal in 2004, Law Enforcement Valor Award from the American Society for Industrial Security 2016 and Nominated for the Alabama Legislative Medal of Honor in 2017.