Centralia’s Chief of Police to Call it a Career After 35 Years In Law Enforcement

By Jackson Gardner

jgardner@chronline.com

After 35 years in law enforcement — five of which were spent right here in Lewis County — Centralia’s 23rd chief of police, Carl Nielsen, is calling it a career in June.

The decision, the 55-year-old chief of police said, was made at the end of last year. His last day on the job will be May 31.

“One of the challenges I’ve seen over my career is that chiefs of police tend to stay too long, which can kind of stagnate a department,” Nielsen said. “I don’t want to be one of those chiefs, I want to be able to clear the way and let the natural progression happen within the organization.”

Of course, when Nielsen had arrived in 2015, he said he inherited a police department that had strong personnel but was guilty of “being helplessly stuck in the that’s-how-we’ve-always-done-it routine.”

But he feels the department has broken those chains and is at an ideal spot for the creativity of new leadership to take over and spread its wings.

At the time Nielsen made the decision to retire, he was also one of three finalists for the chief of police vacancy for the Bainbridge Island Police Department. He has since withdrawn his name.

“It just didn’t feel like it was going to be the right fit for me or Bainbridge so it was just easier for me to withdraw from the process …,” Nielsen said. “There were no ill feelings either way, it was just a decision that wasn’t going to be right for either one of us.”

Back in 2015, The Chronicle interviewed Nielsen, who had been on the job for just four days, and he said being Centralia’s chief of police “was a dream come true.” When asked if that sentiment held up over the five years of being chief of police, there wasn’t a doubt that it had.

“It has been a dream come true,” Nielsen said. “It has been fun to watch the evolution of the organization.”

Nielsen reflected on the years when he was working his way through the ranks of law enforcement in California and how it shaped him as a police chief. He said he was proud of the way he was able to encourage younger officers to reach up and grab leadership positions like his mentors in California had done.

“I had several people that went back to college and that helped as far as their careers go,” Nielsen said. “I had several people who hadn’t thought about being supervisors that were informal leaders, but once we started talking to them it motivated them to take the next step to be first line supervisors.”

“The supervisors we got now are all on the same page and are moving in the right direction so I think the future is real bright for this organization,” Nielsen added.

Nielsen also thinks that there are prospective candidates internally that should be considered to be his replacement.

But of all the things he believes he got right, there was one issue that he wishes he could close the book on.

“I’ve accomplished virtually everything I set out to do,” Nielsen said. “But the one thing that I would have liked to have seen come to a true conclusion and have a true answer for public safety in the entire county, is the question regarding dispatch services.”

The long term feasibility of Lewis County’s 911 dispatch services is a question that has been mulled over since Nielsen first arrived, and the saga still hasn’t found a conclusion. There have been talks of regionalizing the service by Lewis County joining with Thurston County’s dispatch service, among other alternatives, but no decisions have been made yet.

However, Neilsen is pleased that the conversation is at least moving forward in his eyes and he will continue to follow the issue while in retirement.

City Manager Rob Hill, who is responsible for finding a replacement for Nielsen, said he has not yet begun the search process for Centralia’s next chief of police. In a few weeks, Hill said his intention is to roll out a plan of action to city council so they can begin finding Nielsen’s replacement.

He also agrees with Nielsen that there are viable candidates within the Centralia Police Department to be the 24th chief of police for Centralia.