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Rick Silver, the Special Assistant to the Chief at the Bartlesville Police Department (BPD), is set to retire from law enforcement on June 30th.

BPD Chief Tracy Roles said jokingly that this is Silver's last retirement for sure. In all seriousness, Chief Roles said the police department has been very fortunate to have a dedicated public servant like Rick Silver. He said there are more important things in life than working all the time, so he's happy for Silver and his family to get the opportunity to be outside of law enforcement; he's happy that Silver gets to enjoy some of the things that he deserves to enjoy because he has put in the time.

Silver began his law enforcement career as a Bartlesville police reserve in 1988. In March 1989, Silver became a full-time police officer for the Bartlesville Police Department. Silver stayed with the BPD until 2008; he retired as a Lieutenant.

The public would elect Silver to serve as Washington County's Sheriff in 2008. Silver served in that capacity for 10 years before retiring in December 2018.

From there, Silver came back to work for the City of Bartlesville as a Code Enforcement Officer. That was around the same time Chief Roles came to Bartlesville in October 2018. Chief Roles said they had a position that they were trying to define that would bring Silver back to the police department as a civilian. He said Silver already retired and moved out of the police pension, so they couldn't hire him back as a certified officer. That led to the creation of the position of Special Assistant to the Chief.

Chief Roles said he came to Bartlesville brand new and was trying to figure out how the community, the city and the police department was run when he brought Silver on. He said having the opportunity to bring someone like Silver on his staff helped put him in a position to have a successful start; Chief Roles relied on Silver's knowledge and experience - and the knowledge and experience of others - to get him started in Bartlesville.

In addition to being someone Chief Roles can lean on as the Special Assistant to the Chief, Silver oversees the BPD's non-certified personnel. In other words, Silver is the direct supervisor for the Dispatch Center staff, the Record Division, animal control and community service officers, and parking enforcement.

Silver's retirement announcement is bittersweet to Chief Roles and the BPD. Chief Roles said they don't like to lose quality people from their staff. However, Chief Roles understands Silver's decision and respects the move.

Change creates more change, which creates more opportunity. Chief Roles said Silver's role will become another Captain position. He said they still need someone to oversee the BPD's civilian staff, so they are going through the process of selecting a new Captain.

Chief Roles said there is some added stress to this promotional process because they want to promote people for the good that they are going to bring to the department. He said they want to take a deeper look at each candidate to see what they could bring to the department five years down the road.

The BPD started with seven candidates that met the qualifications and showed interest in the position of Captain. Chief Roles said those candidates went through an interview panel and they narrowed the pool down to the top four. Those four applicants will go through a civilian panel on Monday, May 10th.

The candidates will be narrowed down to the top two from there. Chief Roles will then interview the two remaining candidates before a promotion is made on June 7th. He said that promotion will create a chain of subsequent promotions based on the decision that is made.

Looking down the hallway of the BPD's Command Staff, Chief Roles reflected on the tremendous amount of experience that the administrators bring. Chief Roles said Silver, Deputy Chief Rocky Bevard, Captain Jay Hastings, Captain Kelley Thomas, and Captain Kevin Ickleberry collective have well over 100 years of experience. He said it makes him nervous sometimes when he starts to thinking about the inevitability of their departure in the future.

Chief Roles said everyone on the administrative staff has had a tremendous career and the BPD is very fortunate to have their leadership. He said he leans on their experience a lot, and to think about their future departure is troubling, but change creates opportunity.

Whenever the day comes where members of the administrative staff decide to move on, Chief Roles said it will give younger people the opportunity to step up. Chief Roles said that will change the face of the Bartlesville Police Department. He said sometimes fresh eyes and a change in leadership can be good thing.

The Bartlesville Police Department is certainly not in this position with its Command Staff. Chief Roles said members of the administration will leave sooner rather than later, but they haven't gotten to a point in their careers where he is wondering when they're going to leave because they still bring experience and passion to their job every day.

Chief Roles said they'll continue to look to the future and strive to get better each day because the community deserves more than to have the police department remain stagnant. Roles said the biggest thing that needs to be tweaked when it comes to policing moving forward is open-mindedness. He said they always need to embrace the day ahead and change, not for the sake of change, but rather for the change for good.

The BPD's Command Staff has been working through change for a long time. Chief Roles said they always continue to move forward, embracing the challenges they face. He said the Command Staff is not scared of thinking or looking outside the box, which is both refreshing and encouraging.