AUSTIN - A ceremony will be held to swear in the new leader of the Texas Department of Public Safety on Monday. Lt. Col. Freeman F. Martin will be sworn in as the new director at DPS headquarters in Austin. Martin replaces Colonel Steven McCraw, who retired after 15 years as the director of DPS.

Freeman Martin, a senior official at the Texas Department of Public Safety, will serve as the agency’s new executive director beginning next month after the retirement of current DPS director Steve McCraw. Martin, who began at DPS as a highway patrol trooper in 1990, was named to the top agency post by the Public Safety Commission on Wednesday.

Freeman Martin was sworn in by Gov. Greg Abbott as the agency’s 14th director. He worked his way up from Highway Patrol trooper in 1990.