Sioux City is the latest Iowa community to appoint an interim police chief to replace a department leader.
This summer the interim police chiefs in Fairfield, Le Mars and Davenport were elevated to the job permanently. Mount Pleasant’s police chief retires next month and the city council has just hired a successor who’s serving on Mount Pleasant’s police force. Sioux City had narrowed its national search for a new police chief to two finalists, but City Councilman Rick Bertrand said neither was the right fit for the job. “It became very apparently to me that as these candidates kind of whittled down, they really weren’t the finalists. They were kind of what was left,” Bertrand said. “When I spent my time with them, it was very apparent to me these weren’t the guys.”
The city council in Sioux City has appointed a Sioux City policeman to serve as interim chief while their search continues. A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report concludes this is a difficult time to hire a police officer, as retirements and resignations accelerated from 2020 to 2024. And those still serving in police departments are being asked to take on more responsiblities. In July, for example, the police chief in Clinton was named the interim city administrator, too.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)