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Governor Kevin Stitt has appointed former Oklahoma Department of Corrections’ Chief of Operations Scott Crow as interim director of the state’s second-largest agency.

Crow has been with the agency since April 1996. He was hired on as a Special Investigator Supervisor then.

Before ODOC, he worked in law enforcement in southwest Oklahoma, from officer-level up to leadership, including as a captain with the Comanche County Sheriff’s Department and Assistant Police Chief for the City of Cache.

Crow’s appointment comes after former-Director Joe M. Allbaugh announced his immediate resignation Wednesday during the monthly meeting of ODOC’s volunteer governing board, the Oklahoma Board of Corrections.

While the search for Allbaugh’s replacement takes place, Crow will lead the agency’s more than 4,300 employees working in its 24 facilities stretched across Oklahoma, as well as Probation and Parole Services and Community Corrections.

Crow said in a statement that “the agency remains in a position of strength due to its high-caliber of leaders and dedicated employees committed to public safety."

The system is home to 26,145 inmates, with 32,383 under community supervision and 730 in county jails awaiting housing in prison.