St. Augustine Police Chief Jennifer Michaux will retire next month. | St. Augustine Police Department
Published on December 5, 2025 at 4:44 pm
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St. Augustine Police Chief Jennifer Michaux will formally retire from her position next month.
It will mark the end of nearly five years as the city’s first female police chief and the end of a 30-year career in law enforcement.
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Michaux, 55, plans to stay in the area and says the item at the very top of her retirement agenda is to relax.
“I’ve been working since I was 15 years old and wearing a uniform since I was 19 serving somebody else,” Michaux says. “So I figure it’s time to take a little break and see what comes next.”
Michaux is set to retire Jan. 13. Before then, City Manager David Birchim will have to select the city’s next police chief.
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From Chicago kid to police chief
Michaux grew up outside Chicago, but she was stationed at Naval Air Station Jacksonville when she entered the U.S. Navy. She spent six years working as an air crewman. During that time, she met her husband and decided to stay in Florida.
After she was honorably discharged, Michaux got a job working at the St. Augustine Police Department.
That was in 1995. St. Augustine was smaller then, but, in many ways, Michaux says it wasn’t so different from how it is now.
“We are small,” Michaux says, “but we deal with so many different people from around the world — our visitors, our residents and our college population.”
The police chief looks back fondly on the time she worked as an officer with the department. A particular standout, she says, was when she petitioned former Police Chief Barry Fox to change the color of the department’s police cruisers.
The department’s vehicles used to be solid white, but department staff would add blue paint to the cars once they came in. That cost the department about $3,500 per vehicle, she says.
These days, new vehicles are solid blue, and Michaux acknowledges that is part of her legacy with the department.
Another part of her legacy is consolidating the St. Augustine Police Department’s dispatch with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office. By working closer with St. Augustine’s fellow law enforcement officers in the county, she says response times and effectiveness have improved.
Looking back
When Michaux succeeded Fox and became police chief in 2021, she already had 25 years of experience working in law enforcement. Still, she says working as police chief gave her a different perspective.
“Everything’s my fault, good or bad,” Michaux says with a laugh. “I took on that responsibility that I’m going to stand next to them when they make the good decisions, and I’m going to discipline them when they make the poor decisions.”
Now, as her career in law enforcement is winding down, Michaux says the most rewarding thing has been people she crossed paths with wishing her well.
In some cases, Michaux says, people who she met or helped out as kids have reached out to her as adults to wish her well in her retirement.
“I think that’s been my favorite time now as my career is wrapping up,” she says, “finding out how many people I’ve touched over the years.”
With Michaux’s retirement coming up in just over one month, the city must select a new chief of police. Applicants for the role will be presented by the city’s human resources department to its Civil Service Board. Once certified by that board, the city manager will select Michaux’s successor.
As of Friday, city spokeswoman Melissa Wissel said she had no information to share about the city’s next police chief.
