The Riley County Police Department has had to make some shifts to staffing.
Dennis Butler, RCPD Director, says at the beginning of February, Investigation Division Commander and 26-year veteran, Captain Tim Hegarty retired, leaving big shoes to fill at the department.
“I can tell you that he (Tim Hegarty) is a very talented man, highly educated, very smart guy,” Butler says. “He did a lot for this agency during his tenure here in many, many ways. I’m sorry to see him go, but he has talents that he can use as a consultant, and really use in any way he wants.”
Butler says while the shoes are large to fill, he is lucky to have such a great staff at the police department to fill positions and take on promotions.
“I’m really fortunate, and this department is fortunate,” Butler adds. “We had a lot of really good candidates at the rank of lieutenant. I’ve been in positions before where it wasn’t too hard to select who the next promotee would be, here, that’s not the case. Believe it or not, I mean, I’m happy for our promotees, but it is one of the most difficult decisions I make, I don’t always enjoy it because I know there’s good people that aren’t being promoted at this time and that’s hard. That’s hard for me, and I know it’s hard for them.”
Butler says Former Commander of the Support Division at RCPD, Captain Erin Freidline, is now the new Investigation Division Commander. Butler says to fill the Support Division position, Lieutenant Brad Jager, has been promoted to Captain Brad Jager, and will be the new Support Division Commander at the police department.
Along with shifts in positions at the police department, Butler says they are also working on a shift in assignments, especially for Captain Josh Kyle. Butler says Captain Kyle is in charge of the Administration Division and has more people reporting directly to him than any other captain, and by quite the margin. Butler says one of his focuses right now is to take some work off of the plate of Captain Kyle.
“I’m trying to create a true HR department with an HR Manager and having some of those folks reporting to the HR Manager to free up his time from the more line-level day-to-day things that really a first line supervisor would normally handle,” Butler says.
Butler tells KMAN they are looking to move a part-time position in HR to a full-time position at least for the year to see how things go. Butler adds that he believes doing so will be beneficial to the entire police department.
“Captain Kyle works a lot with our legal issues, contracting issues, policy issues with accreditation and our accreditation manager. I really want to free up him more to focus more heavily on those things; that’s where his talents lie, and that’s what would benefit the department.”
Butler says the Law Board will discuss the HR position change at their meeting in March.
