Commander Kara Riley To Be Oro Valley Police Chief

Commander Riley is next Chief
The Oro Valley Town Council has selected Commander Kara Riley as its next chief. The council will formally appoint her on at next weeks' council meeting.

Riley has served our community for 15 years, rising though the ranks. She knows our town. She knows our police department.

Chief-In-Waiting Kara Riley

"She has been employed with the department since 2004, and has held multiple positions including executive officer, patrol lieutenant and support services lieutenant." It is in that last position that LOVE had the opportunity to meet with her.

Result of an extensive national search
The council retained Novak Consulting Group, an Ohio based firm, to conduct a national search. They "...received 70 applications for the position from 31 states, the District of Columbia and several from outside the United States. According to the firm, applicants had an average of 27 years of law enforcement experience and 10 years’ experience at the command staff level."

Riley: "The best of the best"
Some did not want the town to do an external and internal search. Instead, they wanted the town to select between two internal candidates. Rather than simply doing that, the council voted to do a nationwide search for candidates: To seek out the very best. Any internal candidate selected after that search most certainly is the "best of the best"

LOVE congratulates Commander Riley. May you serve many years in keeping our police a force of excellence--- the Pride of Oro Valley!
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Items quoted are from the town's press release

Top Five New Police Chief Focus Areas

It's a challenging job
The Town Of Oro Valley has provided a detailed discussion of the Police Chief position. The following are five key areas of importance.

Traffic safety
With our Biotech industry expanding and more homes being built, our population is increasing rapidly adding more traffic onto our roads. Caterpillar and Raytheon in Tucson are also bringing thousands more jobs to the area. This means that there will be more people moving to this very desirable locale adding thousands of vehicles to the traffic mix.

Roundabouts, somewhat new to this area, could also be a major concern for traffic safety along with increasing incidents of distracted driving.

Strong communication skill
The Police Chief manages 134 FTE’s (full-time equivalent positions) employed in one of five separate divisions to include Administration, Support Services, Field Services, Professional Development and Training, and Professional Standards. The ideal candidate will need to focus on rapidly changing norms in the workplace with special attention given to diversity training, managing sometimes contentious relations with the police union and constructive engagement with the community.

Execute the town's "Two Year Strategic Plan
The incoming chief will have to successfully embrace and execute the two-year strategic plan. This document, developed by the OVPD in 2019, encompasses the guiding principles for the department. The plan puts the focus on community policing, the appointment of a Community Advisory Committee and management of approximately 100 volunteers in the Citizens Volunteer Assistants Program.

Keep Oro Valley the “Safest Town in Arizona”
Opportunities will exist to maintain Oro Valley’s “Safest Town in Arizona” status by identifying ways the programs can continue to achieve traffic, residential, and business safety while close to the Tucson metropolitan area with notably higher crime.

Maintain a participative work environment
The OVPD Police chief is tasked to foster a participative work environment that cultivates staff training and development and ensures sound decision-making at all levels of the organization.
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Source: We extracted portions of this posting from The Novak Group’s Oro Valley Police Chief posting. You can view the job specifications for the Police Chief position here.

Politics, Uncertainty May Nix Outside Search For Police Chief

Two concurrent searches for Police Chief are in progress
In September, Town Human Resources Director Chris Brady extolled the virtues of looking "inside and out" for a Police Chief to replace retiring Police Chief Daniel Sharp. You can read Brady's remarks here.

Based on his recommendation and additional research (See Winfield Panel), the council approved doing both an internal and an external search. Three council members voted against doing an external search, even though it is a recommended best practice (See Gilman Panel).

35 Years with Two Police Chiefs
Two police chiefs have led the Oro Valley Police Department since 1983: Werner Wolfe and Daniel Sharp.

Chief Wolfe joined the department when there were 4 officers.  The headquarters was a house at 680 Calle Condordia. We recall there was a substation of sorts in Rancho Vistoso. That was a condition of Ranch Vistoso agreeing to Oro Valley annexation. We can only imagine how small that budget must have been.

Chief Sharp took over in 2000. The department has grown as has the town. Today, Oro Valley has approximately 138 officers with a budget approaching $18million.  Headquarters is in the town complex. There are several substations and a new evidence facility. During those years Oro Valley has gone from a small town of 9,000 to very large one of about 45,000 people.

Sharp and Wolfe came from outside
Both Wolfe and Sharp came to Oro Valley from the Tucson Police Department. Neither had experience with policing in our community. Neither had been Police Chief before. They brought and implemented their vision of policing to our community. Most would say the did a super job!

By 2000, the town had a developed, respected police force. There were internal candidates to become Police Chief. Still, the council at that time chose to also look outside for a new leader. Had they not done so, Chief Sharp would not have been the leader.

Today, there are 3 internal candidates. Chief Sharp has been introducing them to the community at various HOA meetings. They may well be the best candidates.

"Politics" is a challenge to attracting outside candidates
Internal candidates may well be the only viable candidates for the position of Oro Valley Police Chief. Many very good outside candidates may not want this job because the job of the Oro Valley Police Chief is very much a political job.

In most municipalities, the Police Chief reports to the City or Town Manager: One boss. One person to please. One person who will represent the department's interests to council. In Oro Valley, the Police Chief reports to council. The Police Chief has seven "bosses," The Police Chief has to please four of these. Which 4? How? When? These are difficult waters to navigate.

Add to the political uncertainty the fact that three council members did not want to do an external search. Imagine the resistance these three will mount to any external candidate. Imagine the effort the new chief will have to invest in "winning them over" if the new chief comes from outside the Oro Valley Police Department. Winning their support will be a daunting task.

A possible recall of two of the four people who voted for the external search adds job security uncertainty to the mix
The town hopes to hire the new Chief in late January. We won't know if there will be a recall election until Mid February. If the two incumbents are defeated in a May election, then the new chief, likely hired through their support, will possibly be replaced by the new Mayor and council.

It may well be that, in the end, only an insider will be willing to deal with the politics and the uncertainty.
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