I am excited to be writing this month’s newsletter as your Police Chief! After 9 months of being your Interim Chief, I am so pleased to share that after a nationwide search and process, I was selected to be the next permanent Chief. The support from the community, BPD and our City Manager’s Office has been very humbling, and I am so incredibly honored to have been chosen for this role.

Before I discuss some of my goals and priorities moving forward, I want to acknowledge that as I type this, we are in the midst of one of the most difficult trials in the history of our community. I want to acknowledge the work that has gone into preparing for this trial, and the care and compassion that our District Attorney’s Office, our Victim Advocates, and our community partners have demonstrated as this trial commenced. When the trial is over, I will be able to comment more, but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge this difficult time and thank everyone for the continued support of our staff.

Since taking over as Interim Chief, I have been so fortunate to lead our incredible police department and have seen what we can accomplish with our strong community partnerships, and I am so excited to continue the work. Since I have been in the interim role for all of 2024, you are unlikely to see major, drastic changes right away, but I am excited to be able to begin new projects and strengthen initiatives that have already begun.

One of the first decisions I have to make is to promote a Deputy Police Chief. This process has begun and I am hopeful to have the person named very soon. Then, I will have the opportunity to promote a new Commander who will be assigned to patrol. We have been down one commander during this interim period, and I can’t wait to be able to make a promotion. Over the last couple of years, we have worked hard to develop our supervisors and prepare them for bigger roles, so I am almost certain we have the talent within BPD to fill these roles. The rank of Commander is integral to the success of our day-to-day operations and comes with immense responsibility.

As I mentioned when I first became interim Chief, I have several priorities and those haven’t changed. They are:

• Transparency and Accountability,
• Crime Prevention and Crime Reduction,
• Employee Wellness, and
• Community Engagement.

We have an awesome foundation with our Reimagine Policing Plan, and we are going to make it even better and stronger with our community’s partnership.

By early 2025, with the promotion of a new commander, I am excited to share that I plan to implement a more focused neighborhood policing program. This will allow communities to know which officers and civilian staff members are assigned to their areas, and which commander is overseeing that neighborhood. This also aligns with our Stratified Policing crime reduction program. My long-term vision is to expand this citywide and add more city representatives to this plan to truly have holistic governance.

Also, by early 2025, I am hoping to add more public dashboards as part of our efforts to be more transparent with data and information, based heavily on community requests and feedback. We are working hard with our Innovation and Technology Department to make sure these dashboards reflect community asks, and as we roll them out, we will let you know.

As we move forward together, I want to reiterate my desire and request to have more community involvement in our day-to-day work. We are your police department and want to hear from you about how we are doing, what we can do better, and what you are seeing in your community. My email is RedfearnS@bouldercolorado.gov.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me 24/7, I do check my email consistently and almost always respond with 24 hours.

Thank you again for all of the support and feedback as a new police chief was selected. I am so proud to be that person and will work hard every day to earn and keep the trust that has been placed in me.

In partnership,

Steve Redfearn, police chief