Former Police Chief Rusty Wilder Says He's Pleased With University Place's Direction

Even though Rusty Wilder was University Place’s Police Chief for only 20 months, he says the contracted police department accomplished much with shoestring resources.

The city’s former police chief – whom officials – told Patch today that he enjoyed his time in UP.

Wilder, 41, says he will be working with some of Sheriff Paul Pastor’s strategic initiatives for the Pierce County-wide agency – a move that he and the city first saw coming in December. He started his new position this week.

But he says he enjoyed his tenure as University Place’s top cop, a stint in which the city’s major crimes fell 18 percent from when he started.

He noted the helped address some of the city’s most-pressing policing issues.

Wilder said he noticed that there is a strong sense of volunteerism in University Place, something he saw on a daily basis. The police department’s front desk, for example, was staffed with volunteers.

“I have not seen that kind of volunteerism from the communities in the other assignments I’ve been in,” he said. “It was great to see.”

Whoever city and sheriff department leaders choose as a replacement, Wilder says, will likely have to continue the department’s direction of community oriented policing.

The new chief will also likely have to work with University Place to address the police department’s relatively thin staffing, a problem that .

“I am pretty pleased with a lot of the stuff we were able to do,” he said. “It was real positive.”

Until officials select a new chief, University Place Police Sgt. Mike Blair, who was named last year, is serving as the community top cop.