'Countless Memories': Thornton Police Chief Randy Nelson To Retire This Month After 45 Years
THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) - After 45 years of working at the Thornton Police Department, Chief of Police Randy Nelson is retiring. Nelson was appointed chief in 2011.
"What's been interesting in this department is given that it's my 45th year, I've got to see what it takes to build a police department," Nelson told CBS4's Makenzie O'Keefe. "A prominent, predominate police department in Adams County."
Nelson was first hired as a Thornton police officer in 1976.
"My first introduction to Thornton Police Department was a double wide trailer that served as a temporary police department," Nelson laughed. "The opportunity at age 22 that someone would take a naive college kid and give them the opportunity to do this job, that was exciting,"
Nelson said he quickly moved up the ranks over the years, working in different departments, until he decided he wanted to become Chief of Police.
"I began to believe there were things we could do differently to address the growing population," Nelson explained. "The city had underestimated the growth of the population. We were not keeping up with it, and I think the operations of the department could really feel we were in a pinch."
Under his leadership as chief, since 2011, the department has nearly doubled the number of officers working to protect the community.
"As we became more successful and adding more officers to the department, better protection for officers with equipment, better training for the officers, better work for mental health, everyone began seeing what could be," Nelson said.
Some of his big accomplishments include implementing essential youth programs and building a northern substation to keep up with the growing population and crime.
"We were growing so much we found that we couldn't expand in the current police department," Nelson said. "The substation will handle about 80,000 to 100,000 people, and we currently have 69 people from the police department up there."
Nelson said the department will soon receive more than 180 body cameras for officers, and he's gotten approval to build a new training facility for officers that was supposed to break ground this year.
"What you hope to do when you leave, is to turn over a police department that's in a good position, the organization is healthy to where it needs to be and the next police chief can move in any direction they want," Nelson said. "But they don't have to deal with the same battles that maybe I had to deal with, like getting the manpower, getting the facilities, and getting the training facilities needed."
While his time with the Thornton Police Department marks a lot of growth and a lot of cases that changed his life, it's the people he says, he'll miss the most.
"What I've been really blessed with, is a chief of police is only going to be successful by the men and women who really get behind him or her ," Nelson said. "The greatest pleasure for me versus accomplishment is the memories that you leave behind, with the people you work with. It is countless memories of what they did and what sacrifices they made that stick with you."
Nelson's last day with the department is May 28.
