Samantha Pak

spak@redmond-reporter.com

For Kristi Wilson, good policing is all about community.

She believes that in addressing any issue — from traffic to domestic violence — it is important to take a holistic approach.

“We are a solution, be we’re not the only solution,” Wilson said about the police.

She said law enforcement is usually, and should be, the last resource.

It is this mindset that Wilson plans to bring to the job as the Redmond Police Department’s (RPD) new police chief.

“My vision is really about community interaction,” she said about what she sees for the department’s future under her leadership.

Wilson, who previously served as assistant police chief, was sworn into her new position at this week’s City Council meeting on Tuesday. She will be replacing former Chief Ron Gibson, who retired on Thursday. Wilson is RPD’s fourth police chief.

ROAD TO REDMOND

Born and raised in Burien, Wilson, 50, began considering a career in law enforcement as a young teen. She played softball and one of her teammates’ father was a deputy for the King County Sheriff’s Office. The two of them got talking about his job during downtime at a tournament and the more she learned about the profession, the more interested she became.

After graduating from high school, Wilson attended Central Washington University, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology while she waited to turn 21 — the age requirement to join the police academy.

Upon graduating from the academy, Wilson was hired at the Anacortes Police Department (APD) in late 1987, where she was one of about 20 officers in the department. She worked as a patrol officer and part of the department’s K-9 unit, but after about five and a half years, Wilson realized she had bigger ambitions.

She joined RPD in May 1993, initially working the graveyard patrol shift. Since then, she has also worked in a number of positions within the department, including recruiting and as public information officer. Wilson has also served as supervisor for the swing shift and the traffic unit as well as commander over administration, support services and records. She was promoted to assistant chief in July 2012.

During her tenure with RPD, Wilson has also spent three months at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. for executive leadership training.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARTNERSHIPS

While the police chief title is new, Wilson’s holistic approach to problem solving is not.

During her early years at RPD, there had been a fairly significant domestic violence issue in town at the time.

“Victims were really reluctant to come forward,” Wilson said.

Looking for a way to address this in about 1998, she worked to get a federal grant for the department to start a domestic violence unit that would tie together police, court system and advocacy groups. Wilson said this helps them provide a comprehensive response and resources to help survivors transition into a safer and more stable situation. These ties also allow them to take a more proactive role when it comes to domestic violence.

At the department, the grant money paid for a legal advocate’s position, which is still in existence today, after almost 20 years. Wilson said this shows the value in what community partnerships can accomplish.

“Chief Wilson works collaboratively with residents, employees, community partners and other agencies,” said Mayor John Marchione. “Her visionary leadership style will help the department continue meeting the needs of a growing and changing community, and I congratulate her on being promoted to chief of police.”

While the domestic violence unit at RPD is a success story of how beneficial community partnerships can be, Wilson has also seen the other side — when there were weak or nonexistent partnerships and the systems in place failed and people suffered.

She recalled a particularly difficult case while she was in Anacortes that ended in a suicide and acknowledged that there were other resources and service providers that would have been in better positions to help.

“We maybe are not the solution to their problems,” Wilson said about law enforcement.

GOOD DAYS OUTNUMBER THE BAD

One of the hardest parts about being in law enforcement for Wilson is whenever she has to deliver bad news to a family. But in particular, she said because she is a parent, responding to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) calls.

“There’s no logic behind it,” she said.

But for Wilson, the good outweighs the bad. She especially enjoys speaking with kids, noting that no law enforcement officer will turn down a kid waving at them.

“Everybody will stop,” she said.

Wilson said her favorite part of law enforcement is the fact that every day is different. She never knows what will happen and she leaves at the end of each day knowing she has done something that has a positive impact on someone’s life.

One particular case that stands out for Wilson happened during her early days as an officer with APD.

There was a man in town who was dealing with drug and alcohol problems, in and out of jail and headed down a bad path. Wilson made contact with him on a call one night and talked to him. She told him if he continued the way he was going, he was going to die. Wilson didn’t hear or see the man for about two years when she was called into the station.

“It was him and his wife,” she said. “And I didn’t recognize him.”

Wilson said the man told her he had gone into rehab and cleaned up his life and wanted to tell her that she had saved his life.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Wilson said about seeing a call when it ends happily.

A FIRST FOR RPD

In addition to being RPD’s fourth police chief, Wilson is the department’s first female chief.

She said in her personal experience, being a woman in a male-dominated field has not had much impact on her career path.

“I’ve moved up the chain,” Wilson said.

However, she acknowledges other women in law enforcement may not say the same.

“I can only speak for myself,” Wilson said.

When she was hired at APD in the late 1980s, Wilson was that department’s second female officer. She said while her colleagues probably weren’t excited to see her, once they got to know her and saw that she was competent and could do the job, she fit right in with them.

When she joined RPD, Wilson said she didn’t experience any sort of push back.

“She is prepared,” Gibson said about his successor. “She is more than ready.”

Wilson said RPD is a “very diverse” department, and is about 20 percent female, which is 2-3 times the national average. The national average of women in law enforcement is about 8 percent, she said.

Being female, Wilson said she can bring a different perspective to the job and it was “awesome” to be given the opportunity.

“This is a fantastic organization,” she said about RPD.