East Wenatchee City Council Pauses Decision on Hiring Process for New Police Chief

East Wenatchee's city council pushed off a decision on the process of hiring a new police chief at Tuesday night's meeting after Randy Harrison announced his retirement.

Before the meeting on KPQ's The Agenda, mayoral candidate and councilmember Jerrilea Crawford said she thought the hiring should fall on whoever wins the election in November with help from a head hunter agency.

"I would like to see a lot more community involvement in that. I would expect the police chief to be a very active part of the community where they are going to school board meetings, or going to different agencies and groups, working well with the Wenatchee Police Department and the local sheriff's department and there's a very strong, natural relationship there."

Councilmember and mayoral candidate Tim Detering spoke on the Agenda before the meeting and says he supports hiring a search firm to help in the process.

"Working with them to determine who best fits the community, the personality, and represents what we want as a family, if you will, in East Wenatchee."

He also noted that he wants to involve the police officers in the search process as a way to help mend a rift that has developed between them and management in the police department, though he did note they won't get to hire their new boss.

Chief Harrison will serve in the role through the end of the year.