Chief Eric Olsen

His Work: Chief of Police

“A lot of people think the chief’s office can be kind of an intimidating place to be so I’ve tried to soften it up a little bit.”

Chief Olsen tells me “I’ve got pictures of my kids when they were little, the walls are painted blue instead of boring white. But what’re you going to do.”

Behind his desk is a placard with the department’s mission statement and values of the police department. Mr. Eric Olsen tells me “if the chief doesn’t think they’re important than why should anyone else think they’re important?”

Chief Olsen says “overall, it’s a very comfortable workspace.” One thing I never thought about until now is the safety aspect of workplace design. Chief Olsen seems very content with his workspace though there are some design flaws with the layout of the place. Generally the Chief doesn’t have an office with an entire wall of windows. I ask him about opportunities to redesign and he tells me that the department is tight on space but will be expanding the building in the next few years and will make some changes to the layout. I ask about what kinds of things they might be changing and he says “safety issues, adjacencies, space needs, there’s a lot of things to take into account.”  

Chief Olsen tells me “I always wanted to be a cop when I was a little kid.” His mother, being a college professor, urged him to try college and he did but he also got involved with law enforcement on the side. “Once I started being a deputy I just loved it. It just kind of gets in your blood.” Chief Eric Olsen is in a very unique position because he has worked his way up from field training, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain to Chief through the same department so he is surrounded by many familiar employees. He tells me that a lot of people get promoted to chief by going to another department.

I ask him about the ideal work environment and he says “a positive happy work environment.” He tells me about the social aspect of being Chief. “As chief, regardless of how I’m feeling I have to always be on, I have to always be exuding a positive attitude. It’s very easy for me if I’m critical or negative or just having a bad day, if I allow that to be seen by people working for me pretty quickly it’s like “chief’s having a bad day” or “he’s grumpy” and pretty quickly that spreads like wildfire. I recognize my position as chief and kind of set the tone of the agency. ” I compare this to being on stage all the time. He seems to really care about the employees and tells me “you can deal with some pretty crumby stuff in police work but you can still take the time to have fun, to tell employees they’re doing a good job” and ask how they’re doing.

I ask about the difference in his work from being an Officer out in the field and being Chief. “What I do in my job as Chief has a great impact to our police officers working on the street and so that’s still important to me, that I make them safe give them good equipment, provide for them and then ultimately we provide for the safety of the community.” Chief Olsen is articulate and decisive with his words and exudes an energy of loving what he does for work.

Chief Eric Olsen tells me “we’re always trying to build a positive relationship with the community.” They have a Citizens Academy in which the citizens get to experience some of the police work. They go through mock scenes, tasers, how to shoot a gun, basic crime investigation, and they get to be chased by the police dogs. Chief Olsen says “we’re trying to breakdown some of the stereotypes of what cops are and we’re making good progress.” I tell him that it sounds like  a wonderful program.  “It’s just a way of giving back and then they become great supporters of the police department which is what we need to be successful—the support of our community.”

When I ask Chief Olsen how he feels about his work he says “I’m living a dream.” I ask him if he could put his experience with his work into a few words and he replies “exciting, rewarding, giving, challenging, frustrating— just because you deal with very difficult issues and you’ve got to deal with issues in police work. The calls come in and the crimes occur and some of the things that we deal with is incredibly shocking and frustrating and that’s part of our job, its keeping the community safe.”