Photo by Jon Anderson
Norman McDuffey, the assistant chief for the Hoover Police Department, speaks at a Hoover City Council meeting on Monday, June 23, 2025.
Norman McDuffey, the assistant chief for the Hoover Police Department, will become acting police chief Tuesday, June 24, at 5 p.m. when Chief Nick Derzis takes a two-month vacation to run for mayor.
Derzis is required by law to step away from his duties as police chief while running for mayor once he officially qualifies to run. He announced that McDuffey would become acting chief during Monday night’s Hoover City Council meeting.
McDuffey has been in law enforcement for 35 years. He began with the Birmingham Police Department in 1990 and rose to the rank of sergeant in Birmingham before joining the Hoover Police Department in 2001.
He served as a patrol officer and canine handler before rising through the ranks as a sergeant, lieutenant and captain in both the patrol and investigations divisions. He also served a year in special operations and has been a canine unit supervisor, special response team member, hostage negotiator, homicide investigator, narcotics investigator and fugitive task force member.
In 2019, McDuffee went to and graduated from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and in 2023, he was named Hoover’s assistant police chief.
McDuffey was born in Ohio but grew up in Birmingham and graduated from Woodlawn High School in 1979. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Samford University.
McDuffey on Monday night told the City Council he appreciates the leadership and assistance the City Council has given the Police Department during his 24 years with Hoover. He counts himself very fortunate to work with this group of Hoover employees and to have the support of government leaders, he said.
During the next couple of months, the Hoover Police Department will continue doing things “the Hoover way in everything we do,” he said.
