Canton Police Chief Will Retire in January

Photo credit: Canton Police Department

After a little more than two years on the job, Canton Police Chief Robert Merchant is hanging up his hat.

Merchant has announced his plans to retire from the post he’s held since June 2012.

“Mr. Cummins asked me to stay until my replacement assumes command and I agreed,” Merchant told Patch on Saturday. “I have had a great time, but I miss my family and want to spend more time with them. I will be returning to central Florida.”

Merchant said he hopes to return to Florida by the end of January.

Merchant was chosen to head the Canton Police Department by former City Manager Scott Wood in May 2012, and started work in the post a month later.

He came to a department in the aftermath of widespread criticism of how the agency handled the December 2011 kidnapping and murder of Jorelys Rivera, which led the resignation of former Chief Jeff Lance.

Merchant’s career in law enforcement began when he joined the Oviedo Police Department in 1975.

He later joined the U.S. Marines where he was assigned to the Presidential Helicopter Squadron, an elite division of the Marines that transports the president of the United States and other VIPs around the world. Merchant served under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

When his military career ended in 1980, he started his career with the Altamonte Springs, Florida, Police Department. He would spend the next 31 years there, rising to the rank of chief on May 1, 2002, a position he held until September 2011 when he announced his retirement there.