Salem’s new Deputy Police Chief Tyler Rose was sworn in by Mayor Nic Farley at Wednesday night’s council meeting. Just a few minutes later, Farley announced Rose had been appointed acting chief to run the department until a replacement is found for retiring chief Susan Miller.
Rose has been busy with the transition.
“With the holidays, which made it very difficult, I’ve spent the past three weeks trying to get brought up to speed with the training,” Rose said. “There was a lot of things to hand over from former chief Susan Miller to me. Basically, those last three weeks have been training and trying to get as much information as possible. She’s still available by phone, she’s made that absolutely clear and I’ve reached out to her a couple times. She’s absolutely willing to help as we go.”
As Rose begins in his new role, he talked about the biggest challenges.
“The biggest challenge is just getting caught up with the new administrative side of it,” Rose said. “I’ve been a police officer for many years now and I’m very comfortable with the enforcement action, but the admin is a completely different side of it. I’m hoping all that knowledge from working the road and knowing what the officers do will help me in dealing with personnel and that kind of thing.”
Rose says filling open positions is also at the top of his list. The department is currently down four of its authorized 18 sworn positions. One new patrolman is beginning the state required academy this week. Rose would like to have candidates in place for the remaining three positions by the next training session in March. Rose is very close to hiring a sixth telecommunicator. That position was added last year.
Rose says he will not be a candidate for police chief. He says he has a lot to learn in the Deputy Chief position.
City Manager Annette Sola announced there are 25 applications for police chief. She’s hopeful a new chief can be completed by early March and begin work in early April.
Sola says so far 15 applications have been submitted for the city manager’s position, a job from which she will retire at the end of June.
