Carmel's police chief, Paul Tomasi, is set to retire—again.

When it was announced earlier this month that Carmel Police Chief Paul Tomasi was retiring—his second time retiring from the department—some in the village wondered if he’s leaving due to the ongoing debate over the decaying police department building or the officer-involved shooting that happened last fall.

Tomasi says there’s a much simpler reason.

“I’m at the end of my career,” he says. He's been in law enforcement for 30 years, a time when many officers retire. He’s also maxed out on accruing retirement benefits and, “frankly, I’m not as young as I used to be.”

He's also at the end of 20 months as Carmel’s chief for the second time, completing a whole list of deferred tasks to get the department back on track after a couple of years of uncertainty.

“I’ve done everything that was asked of me,” Tomasi says. “It’s my time in my career to move on.”

When Tomasi retired the first time in 2021, the city conducted a nationwide search resulting in the hiring of Alan Ward from the Merced Police Department in June 2022. Ward only lasted about seven months. He was placed on administrative leave for reasons never made public, then retired in June 2023.

Four months later in October, City Administrator Chip Rerig announced that Tomasi was returning in November. Tomasi says he came back because he always considered Carmel to be his second home. “It was for the department and this community,” he says.

“In 2023 when Chip asked me to come back, I said I’ll stay as long as is needed and when stability is back in the police department, I’ll leave,” he says.

The department was in need of hiring new officers and dispatchers, as well as new vehicles and equipment. Only one patrol car was in working order when he returned.

In addition, the Carmel City Council had three ad hoc committees going that impacted the department, one tackling the decade-long debate about what to do with the aging police building, another concerned merging the city’s ambulance service with the Monterey Fire Department and finally one investigating how many Flock license plate reader cameras to use inside the city.

Tomasi was charged with seeing those through, and save for the police building, the other two issues have been settled, with the council agreeing to merge the ambulance service and approving a two-year contract with Flock that reduced the number of cameras from 30 to six, with a provision to add up to six more.

Over the last 20 months Tomasi has hired three dispatchers to fill vacancies as well as a non-sworn supervisor to oversee the dispatchers. He added a sergeant position and he was able to add two officer positions in the 2025-2026 budget.

He also created a commander position, hiring Commander Todd Trayer, previously of the San Jose Police Department, with an eye toward Trayer taking over when Tomasi leaves. Trayer is slated to serve as interim beginning Aug. 5.

“He’s been a really good fit in the community. He understands Carmel and small town policing,” Tomasi says. “He’s doing a great job here.”

Other tasks completed included replacing the entire fleet of vehicles with four new patrol cars, two electric and two gas-powered, and purchasing updated uniforms and equipment.

Tomasi was there last October the day that he and two officers were involved in an incident where one of the officers shot and killed a man experiencing a mental health crisis, 27-year-old James Marshall. At the time, Marshall was reportedly carrying an AK-style rifle on Monte Verde Street.

The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigated and reported that the weapon Marshall was carrying was a BB rifle. He was also in possession of pepper spray, a knife and a 3-foot-long crowbar and was dressed in ballistic body armor.

According to the report, after non-lethal methods were used to subdue him and he refused to obey officers’ orders, Marshall charged one of the officers with the crowbar. A second officer shot Marshall. They administered medical aid until first responders arrived—Marshall later died of his injuries at Natividad Hospital.

On July 11, Marshall's mother, Ellen Barrett, filed a federal lawsuit against Carmel, Tomasi and the two other officers involved, alleging they used unjustified deadly force in response to the mental health crisis.

Tomasi, commenting only on the incident, says the small department is “doing OK,” since it happened.

“That’s a hard time for any agency to go through and in Carmel it’s not something we’ve experienced before,” he says. “The community has been amazing in its support of the officers and their actions…for all of us it was a tough situation to be in. I’m really proud of the way the officers and the department have handled it.”

Tomasi says he’s not sure what he’ll be doing in retirement, perhaps teaching leadership at a police academy or getting into investigative work.