COLUMBUS – Polk County Sheriff’s Office Det. Sgt. Nicholas Stott has accepted a position with Homeland Security and left for Texas over the weekend.

Stott left for McAllen, Texas after accepting a position with the Homeland Security Investigations, a subsection of ICE. 

Stott has worked in law enforcement in Polk County for the past decade after graduating from Polk County High School in 2002 and graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006 with a degree in Arts in Peace, War and Defense (national and international defense and security concentration). Stott completed his Basic Law Enforcement Training at the Chapel Hill Police Academy and began working at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in 2006.

Stott left the sheriff’s office to join the Columbus Police Department in 2009, where he attained the rank of captain. In August 2016, Stott re-joined the Polk County Sheriff’s Office as a sergeant in criminal investigations. Over his service in Polk County, Stott completed almost 5,000 hours of training, including being the only officer in the county trained as a traffic crash reconstructionist.

Stott said he was a task force officer in Columbus for four years and enjoyed the types of cases and the investigative aspect of them. He worked closely with federal agents and said Homeland Security Investigations was his first choice of any of the federal agencies.

“Federal law enforcement was always my career goal,” Stott said. “Once I was in law enforcement working with different agencies, I fell in love with HSI (Homeland Security Investigations).”

Stott said being selected to work for a federal agency has been a long process. There were not a lot of applications accepted and a position opened up in the fall of 2015 and he applied. He was alerted just over three weeks ago that he received the job.

Stott recently left for Texas and will then go to Georgia for a six-month training academy.

Polk County Sheriff Donald Hill said Stott is smart and educated and the sheriff’s office has always known he had higher ambitions.

“He’s knowledgeable and talented at what he does,” Hill said. “He’s very thorough, no doubt about it. We appreciate what’s he’s done while he was here. He did a great job and we wish him the best in his future.”

Columbus Police Chief Chris Beddingfield said Stott was one of the most knowledgeable and intelligent officers he’s ever worked with.

“We did a ton of stuff together for the betterment of our community and police department,” Beddingfield said. With his education and background I suggested for a long period of time that he try for a federal position where those credentials could be utilized. We hope that his training and experience gained while at Columbus PD will benefit him in his new position and wish him all the best in the future.”

Stott said working in law enforcement where he grew up was tough but the community has been good to him.

“This is my dream job and I want to give back to the community where I grew up,” Stott said. “I met a lot of good people. It’s been my dream job and I have to pursue it. It’s bittersweet to move away from my friends and family and people who have been so good to me, but I’m excited.”

Stott does not yet know what branch of Homeland Security Investigations he will be assigned to but the agency has several areas including drug investigations, alien smuggling, money laundry, child porn and weapons.