Port Townsend Police Chief Mike Evans announced last week he will retire from law enforcement after 20 years of service.
Port Townsend City Manager John Mauro said in an email that the department will take steps this week to appoint an interim chief until a search for a permanent replacement can be completed.
Evans’ last day will be March 1, after which he said he plans to move to the Olympia area with his family to take a job as the head of security at Providence St. Peter Hospital.
Serving the City of Port Townsend was a dream come true for Evans, he said, but it’s time to try something new for himself and his family.
“I got to live the Norman Rockwell lifestyle,” he said. “I always dreamed of being a police officer in a seaside town, and this was it and more, but life is short.”
Evans said he is confident the department will function at full capacity without him while they select a new chief. He said in the past couple of years he has been on leave twice for the births of his two youngest children and everything has gone smoothly.
It could be good for the department to get a fresh set of eyes and ears on the issues as well, he said, someone who can help elevate the agency and continue to make improvements.
“Everyone else does the real work,” he said. “I’m just the guy flying at 30,000 feet.”
He said what he sees as one of the biggest challenges facing the department during the transition is maintaining the myriad community relationships with organizations that serve Port Townsend, such as OlyCAP, Dove House and other advocacy groups.
“Nothing is just a one-department issue anymore,” he said. “Criminal justice shows us the economic and social inequalities in our community, and we have to work together to solve them.”
Mauro echoed the sentiment, saying he believes the biggest challenge will be to make sure the staff is not overstretched with a reduced capacity.
Evans came to work in Port Townsend in 2000 when the police department was still housed in what is now the Cotton Building. That small-town feel and rural lifestyle was what drew him here, he said.
He was appointed Interim Police Chief after Connor Daily retired in 2016, and was eventually appointed to the position permanently.
“I’ve really appreciated my time here being a coach, a friend, a dad and an officer,” Evans said. “I’m going to miss the people the most. That’s the bitter of the sweet.”
