Chief of Police Job Description

A Chief of Police is the executive in charge of a municipal police department. The chief answers to whoever holds appointing power under the city charter, whether that is a mayor, a city manager or the council, and sets direction for every sworn officer and civilian employee in the agency. Daily command runs through deputy chiefs, captains and lieutenants. The chief works one layer above them: policy, budget, discipline, labor relations and public accountability.

Policy carries the chief's signature, literally. The chief signs the general orders that govern use of force, vehicle pursuits, body-worn camera activation, evidence handling and off-duty conduct. Those orders are what a court, an oversight board or a state auditor reads after a contested incident, so the chief owns the exact wording as well as the intent behind it.

Technology choices land on the same desk. Milwaukee's generative AI order, effective Jan. 23, 2026, says the acceptable use of any AI system for department functions must be approved at the discretion of the Chief of Police or a designee, and it has the chief appoint an AI committee led by an AI coordinator. Drones are a parallel case. Nashville's Drone as First Responder trial program sends small unmanned aircraft to police and fire calls for service under a written program policy, and access to the system is limited to FAA licensed drone pilots who have completed the required training, along with supervisors and Community Safety Center personnel. Whether a city runs a program like that, and under which privacy and retention rules, is a call the chief recommends and then defends before elected officials.

Money is the other constant. A chief builds the department's budget request, argues for it in council hearings, and then manages overtime, staffing and equipment inside whatever the council appropriates. Grant applications, fleet replacement and records-system contracts pass through the chief's office or its finance staff.

Personnel authority sits at the center of the job. Depending on civil service rules and the police union contract, the chief may approve hires, promotions and terminations, sign off on internal affairs findings, and represent management in grievance and arbitration cases.

Then comes the public side. After a police shooting, a viral video or a frightening run of burglaries, the chief is the one at the podium. Chiefs also attend neighborhood meetings, brief council committees, and coordinate with prosecutors, the county sheriff, state police and federal task forces on cases that cross jurisdictions.

Department size shapes the work. In a small town, the chief may still take calls, write reports and supervise patrol shifts in person. In a large city, the chief manages through several layers of command staff. In both settings, the chief is the person the city holds responsible for how its officers police.

The path to chief runs through law enforcement itself. As a rough guide, candidates have spent 15 to 25 years in policing, moving from patrol through sergeant, lieutenant and captain, often with a stint as deputy or assistant chief. Breadth matters in a search: a candidate who has commanded patrol, run an investigations bureau and managed an administrative unit such as training, records or internal affairs can answer questions about every part of the department.

Education. A bachelor's degree in criminal justice, public administration or a related field is typical preparation. A master's degree in public administration or criminal justice is useful groundwork for the budget, labor and policy side of the job, and some candidates complete one while serving as a captain or deputy chief.

Peace officer status. Expect to need peace officer certification or licensing from your state's standards and training commission, such as the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) or California's Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). An outside hire from another state may have to go through that state's reciprocity process before taking command.

State executive training. Texas sets a specific rule for new chiefs. TCOLE's current requirements say a new chief of police must complete 80 hours of new chief's training, the New Chief Development Program (#3780) and the Texas Police Chief Leadership Series (#3740), at the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas (LEMIT) within 2 years of first appointment. Until that training is finished, the new chief must keep up the 40 hours of peace officer continuing education. Check your own state's commission for rules that apply to agency heads.

Executive programs. The FBI National Academy runs a 10-week residential program in collaboration with the University of Virginia for senior law enforcement leaders. Attendance is by invitation only through a nomination process generally initiated by an FBI field office, and the Academy convenes four sessions each year, each hosting up to 300 students. Other programs candidates pursue include the Senior Management Institute for Police from the Police Executive Research Forum and the School of Police Staff and Command from the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety. FEMA's ICS-300 and ICS-400 courses train supervisors and command staff to manage expanding and complex incidents under the Incident Command System.

Skills a search committee tests. Budget development and defense, collective bargaining and grievance handling, policy writing, crisis communication in front of cameras, and the ability to work with a civilian oversight board without ceding command. An assessment center may include a mock press conference and an in-basket exercise built around a budget shortfall or a misconduct complaint.

Character and record. A chief's own disciplinary history, financial disclosures and past public statements will be examined by the appointing authority, by reporters and by community groups.

Each department has one chief, so openings come when a sitting chief retires, resigns or is replaced by the appointing authority. Projections exist only for the broader occupation. O*NET projects average growth of 3% to 4% for First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives over 2025 to 2035, with about 10,600 openings a year on average. Those figures cover sergeants, lieutenants and captains as well as chiefs, and BLS does not project chief positions separately.

Staffing is one operational pressure a new chief may inherit. In the Police Executive Research Forum's May 2026 survey of member chief executives, responding agencies hired 17.6 percent more officers in 2025 than in 2024, and respondents reported 16.4 percent more retirements over the same span. For a chief, those two numbers translate into concrete work: academy seats, field training officers to pair with recruits, and supervisors to replace the people who left.

Federal oversight policy changed in 2025. Executive Order 14288, signed April 28, 2025, directed the Attorney General to review, within 60 days, all ongoing federal consent decrees, out-of-court agreements and post-judgment orders to which a state or local law enforcement agency is a party. The same order told the Attorney General to create a mechanism to provide legal resources and indemnification to officers who unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken in the performance of their duties, and directed federal agencies to increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions. On May 21, 2025, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced it was beginning to dismiss its lawsuits against the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments with prejudice, to retract the earlier findings of constitutional violations, and to close investigations into the police departments of Phoenix, Trenton, Memphis, Mount Vernon and Oklahoma City, plus the Louisiana State Police.

Outside a federal decree, the rules governing reform come from state law, the city charter, union contracts and local oversight bodies, which differ from one jurisdiction to the next. A candidate weighing an offer should read all four before signing. The appointment structure matters too: a chief who serves at the pleasure of a mayor faces a different risk profile than one hired by a city manager under a multi-year contract with severance terms.

A chief candidate should be ready to show results on the problems in front of the city: rebuilding staffing, reducing overtime, closing cases, and managing a critical incident without losing public confidence. Experience setting technology policy, from body camera release rules to drone and AI governance, belongs in that record.

The job also has a natural next step for an internal candidate who is not yet ready: deputy or assistant chief roles, which give a commander budget and policy responsibility under a sitting chief. Lateral moves to smaller departments, where a captain from a large agency can become chief, are another route into the top job.

Dear Members of the Riverton City Council and City Manager Alvarez,

I am applying for the position of Chief of Police for the City of Riverton. I have served the Lakeport Police Department for 22 years, the last four as Deputy Chief of Operations, where I command patrol, investigations and the communications center.

When I took over operations, our patrol division was short of its authorized strength and leaning on mandatory overtime to cover shifts. I worked with our human resources director and the police officers' association to shorten the hiring process, add a lateral-entry track and rebuild our field training program. By the end of my second year, every patrol shift was staffed without forced holdovers, and overtime spending came in under budget.

I also led the rewrite of our body-worn camera policy after a contested arrest drew public criticism. I held listening sessions in three neighborhoods, met with the civilian review board before the draft went to council, and set a clear release timeline for critical-incident video. The council adopted the policy unanimously, and our complaint backlog has stayed down since.

Riverton's next chief will face a tight budget and a community that wants both quicker response times and more transparency. I have built and defended budgets in public hearings, negotiated with our union across two contract cycles, and stood at the podium after hard nights. I am a graduate of the FBI National Academy and hold a master's degree in public administration.

I would welcome the chance to discuss how I would lead the Riverton Police Department, starting with a listening tour of every shift and every council district in my first ninety days.

Respectfully,

Dana Whitfield Deputy Chief of Operations, Lakeport Police Department