University of Mississippi police veteran Adam Peacock retires after 26 years

Lt. Adam Peacock’s last call with the University Police Department came on April 28, closing out 26 years in law enforcement and taking with it a long view of how Oxford and the University of Mississippi have handled safety together.

For Lafayette County, Peacock’s retirement is more than a personnel change. It marks the loss of an officer who worked through the routines and disruptions that define a university town, where campus calls, neighborhood concerns and shared investigations often spill across jurisdiction lines between the University of Mississippi Police Department, the Oxford Police Department and the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department.

Peacock began his law-enforcement career with the Water Valley Police Department in 2001, working the night shift after earlier jobs at a lumber yard and with the Water Valley Fire Department. He had also joined the National Guard before becoming a police officer. A friend suggested he try UPD, and he started at Ole Miss in a temporary position in the fall of 2002.

His path was interrupted almost immediately by military service. Peacock deployed to Iraq in December 2002 with B Co., 223rd Engineering Battalion, serving as a combat engineer. He returned home in February 2004, after UPD had already accepted him as a full-time officer, and resumed work after a university celebration for returning service members. He later deployed again in 2009 and 2013.

Peacock also used his time at the university to finish a degree, earning a criminal justice degree from the University of Mississippi in 2020. Capt. Jane Mahan, who has worked with him for about 22 years, described him as “his own unique person,” and said that working alongside him meant disagreements, serious moments and laughs.

UPD describes itself as a full-service, state-accredited law enforcement agency operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with patrol, administrative operations and emergency management units. It also says it works closely with the Oxford Police Department and the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department on shared investigations. Oxford police say the city department has 91 sworn officers and more than 114 total staff, a reminder of the size of the public-safety network Peacock spent his career inside.

Peacock said retirement will not mean sitting still. He plans to open a taxidermy shop, a fitting next step for an officer known for hunting deer and turkey, fishing and respecting wildlife. He said campus duty brought him face to face with cottonmouth snakes, raccoons and an American alligator, including one call about a possible alligator in a dorm room.