The relative calm experienced under the steady leadership of Pacific Grove Police Chief Amy Christey for over two years is about to be interrupted.
She informed City Manager Ben Harvey recently that she's retiring from her 26-year law enforcement career, effective Dec. 30. He officially announced the retirement at the City Council meeting on Nov. 28.
This will be the second time in Harvey's three years with Pacific Grove he's had to replace a chief, and he says he's drawing on what he learned during the last search to act quickly to find a permanent replacement within the next four months.
He's been interviewing interim candidates for the last week in hopes of having someone step in while Christey is still on the job. He's already contacted executive search firms to begin immediately finding candidates for a permanent position.
“Whoever I end up selecting will need to pick up where Chief Christey left off,” Harvey says. “That’s very important to me.”
Prior to Christey coming on board in August 2016, Pacific Grove Police went through almost a decade of changes and turmoil.
All of P.G.'s staff underwent layoffs after the city announced it was in financial trouble in 2007. The police staff shrunk, leading to the on-again-off-again retirement of former chief Darius Engles.
When Engles did retire in 2012, P.G. and Seaside agreed to share chief Vicki Myers to save money, but within a year there were signs that the merger wasn't working out for either city. Unions for both departments publicly criticized Myers and called for her to go.
Also during Myers tenure, the Pacific Grove Police Officers' Association complained the city was taking too long to agree to a new contract after the old one expired in 2013.
Myers did leave in 2015, and P.G. was served by an interim chief, Steve Belcher, until an extensive search resulted in Christey's hiring the following year.
Christey brought a level of professionalism to the department that attracted new officers who wanted to serve under her leadership, Harvey says. The department went from being down several positions to being fully staffed. He adds she was helpful in negotiating successfully with the police union.
In addition to focusing on officer training, Christey also believed in community outreach. The department has been very active on social media, pushing out information to the public and highlighting some of the lighter moments of local police work. She also routinely met with the public through “Coffee With a Cop” events around town.
Christey served in the U.S. Army for four years starting in 1988, followed by 20 years with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, where she served as a bomb commander. She served as chief of the Morro Bay Police Department from 2012-2016, before joining P.G. Police.
In retirement Christey plans on spending more time with her wife and two-year-old daughter.