RIDGEFIELD — Police Chief Carrie Greene is excited to spend time with her horses.
“They’ve been more like yard ornaments lately,” said Greene, 57, whose second retirement starts today.
Greene first retired in 2004 after 25 years with the Washington State Patrol, most recently as the district commander for Southwest Washington. She came out of retirement to take over as chief of the Ridgefield Police Department in 2007.
“I was approached to consider it by a few people,” she said. “This is my community. We’ve lived in the area since ’93. Our son went through the school system. It was a nice opportunity to provide a service to my community.”
This time, Greene plans to stay retired, and she thinks she and her husband will be spending plenty of time at their place in Montana.
“It was the right time for me to say I’m done with law enforcement,” she said. “We’ve wanted to move to our place in Montana for the last few years. It’s kind of hard to commute to there.”
Greene was pleased with her tenure at Ridgefield, which came at a time that saw growth in both the city and its police department. When she started, the department had a chief, four officers and a records clerk. The department now has a chief, six officers, two sergeants, a lieutenant and a records clerk.
“We’ve consistently provided 24/7 coverage, and that’s real difficult for a small agency,” said Ridgefield Mayor Ron Onslow.
Greene is proud the department has provided round-the-clock coverage for Ridgefield, and said she’s seen an increase in calls as the population has grown. In addition to increasing staff, she and her officers kept up with the demands of the department with increased training, which was something she wanted to bring with her when she started nine years ago.
“When she started, they didn’t have time to do the training that should’ve been done,” Onslow said. “They had 24 hours per year, and now they have in excess of 65 hours a year of training.”
Greene said the department schedules training days every other month now, as opposed to whenever they could fit one in. The training has covered a variety of topics, including mental health. Officers recently practiced for calls to the marina by wearing life vests and falling into a resident’s swimming pool.
Onslow said Greene brought a lot to the department and the city, including grants for equipment and emergency training for the community. She completely rewrote the policy manual. While Greene is proud of all those accomplishments, she is most proud about the safety of her officers.
“There were no officers seriously injured or killed,” she said. “For any chief, that’s our biggest fear, to get that phone call in the night. It’s nice to know they’ve all gone home safe to their families.”
For city employees, they were thrilled that Greene came in and turned things around after the department had dealt with some issues, including an officer suing the city on grounds of alleged racial prejudice. The lawsuit has been settled. A 2006 investigation of the department “characterized it as a ‘dysfunctional family’ complete with infighting and low morale,” according to The Columbian’s files. Onslow said the department was in “disarray” before Greene started.
“We didn’t have a leader and we didn’t have good documentation,” he said. “There’s a lot of loose ends that needed to be tied up … She came in and worked real hard.”
Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart was a county commissioner at the time Greene was hired, and watched her turn the department around from afar.
“Chief Greene has brought stability and positive momentum for the department and for public safety in Ridgefield,” said Stuart, a Ridgefield native. “She came in at a time of turmoil, and not only did she provide stability, but she also did provide a vision for how to provide community policing in Ridgefield that people would appreciate.”
Now that Greene has retired, the city will hire a new chief. Stuart said the first review of applicants will take place after May 20, and he hopes to have an offer out by the end of June, with someone on board shortly after. In the meantime, recently retired Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas will take over as the interim chief, Stuart announced Thursday.
As for her replacement, Greene suggested he or she bring a pair of sneakers, because that individual will have to hit the ground running. A big reason Greene felt like she could step away now is she feels the department is set up to continue providing the standard of protection she set, which she said she couldn’t have done without some help from other local police.
“We have some of the best agencies in the whole state, and we all work together really well,” Greene said. “That’s what makes us work so well. We all work together and get along. We wouldn’t be where we are today in Ridgefield if it wasn’t for all the other law enforcement agencies in Clark County helping out.”
