Olympia’s police chief will retire next month after 9 years leading the department

Olympia’s police chief will retire next month after nine years leading the department, the city announced Wednesday.

Ronnie Roberts’ last day will be Dec. 6. He told The Olympian he had been thinking for a while about leaving, though he does so with mixed emotions.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished what I came to accomplish in Olympia, I’ve got good solid people in place and they need space to grow professionally,” said Roberts, 58.

In recent years, the department has relaunched its downtown walking patrol, added neighborhood liaison officers and a crisis response team that works alongside police, all as the result of passage of a public safety levy.

“The thing I’m most proud of is we’ve moved as an organization into one that really does try to establish trust,” Roberts said, pointing to partnerships within the community and work on how police interact with the public. “It’s not just taking people to jail, it’s about trying to solve problems and working with our community.”

But Roberts’ time in Olympia also saw unrest in 2015 following a police shooting of two black men that left one of the men paralyzed. A jury in a civil lawsuit last month found the officer did not violate their civil rights and was not negligent in the shooting.

More recently, police have faced criticism over the unsolved case of Yvonne McDonald, a black woman who was found on the street last year. Relatives of McDonald and their supporters have called for an outside investigation into her death and the police response.

Roberts’ departure will come just a month after that of Steve Hall, the longtime city manager.

Interim City Manager Jay Burney said an interim police chief will be announced in the next week. Burney said the City Council will first hire a new city manager, who will lead a national search for and hire a new police chief.

Roberts came to Olympia from Oregon. He started as an officer in Eugene in 1986 and rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant. He later served as police chief in Redmond, Oregon for four years before accepting the Olympia chief job in 2011.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 10:51 AM.