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Chief's Message
Thank you for visiting and welcome to the Des Moines Police Department web site. With the retirement of Police Chief Roger Baker in June of 2010 I have been honored by being asked to serve as the Interim Police Chief until a permanent police chief is selected. It has been my pleasure to have served with the Des Moines Police Department since 1979. My most recent assignment until this selection was serving as the support services commander overseeing administrative, budget, professional standards, and criminal investigations for the department. In 2002 I was selected to attend and graduated from the FBI National Academy.As a smaller police agency located in metropolitan area we face the same challenges many larger “big city” police agencies are challenged with to include violent crime, gang activity, drug activity and prostitution. We are also facing these conditions at the same time we have had significant reductions to budget and staffing. In the 2010 budget process our full time employee staff was reduced by 11 positions including 8 police officer positions. This necessitated the elimination of our motor traffic unit and crime task force team that dealt with some of the more systemic crime problems in the community.
These reductions have obligated changes in how we do business. For instance rather than sending an officer to every incident we encourage citizens to report minor crimes to us via the internet. This saves valuable labor resources that can be redirected for other more serious police related purposes. In any emergency or in-progress crime we still ask that you call 911 to have an officer dispatched immediately. The members of our department are a dedicated group of employees who are here to help serve you and the community. We are proudly committed to the business of policing and partnering with the public to jointly build a better community. We welcome your comments and questions.
I can be contacted at (206)-870-7604 or via the net at joleary@desmoineswa.gov
Respectfully, John E. O’Leary, Interim Chief of Police
