{"id":1319561,"date":"2020-04-21T16:47:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=995824"},"modified":"2020-04-21T16:47:24","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:47:24","slug":"rifle-officer-selected-as-carbondale-police-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rifle-officer-selected-as-carbondale-police-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle officer selected as Carbondale police chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"657\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-1024x657.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-1024x657.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-300x193.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-768x493.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-1536x986.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/04\/cdalechief-gpi-042220-2048x1315.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Rifle Police Department Sgt. Kirk Wilson sits with Carbondale Trustee Lani Kitching during an open house for police chief candidates March 12, 2020.<\/strong><br \/><em>Thomas Phippen \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Carbondale Town Manager Jay Harrington has appointed Rifle Police Sgt. Kirk Wilson to be the new chief of police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am excited about Kirk\u2019s acceptance of my offer \u2014 we had four very strong candidates and Kirk excelled during the process,\u201d Harrington said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe future of the Carbondale Police Department is bright with strong leadership, talented officers and staff,\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson, who has been with the Rifle Police Department since 2002, said he wants to keep communication open between law enforcement and the community, just as outgoing Chief Gene Schilling has done.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/pi-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cI want to continue that theme where people in the community feel comfortable either coming in, or calling me directly, just as they have with Chief Schilling, to voice concerns, complaints, and to share praise. I look forward to being a part of that,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p>When Wilson and the other candidates began applying for the open position, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the social distancing measures in response, had not reached the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, community policing has changed in many ways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the aspects of community policing are being placed on hold. Holding community events, speaking in front of groups of people personally, when you\u2019re interacting and educating people, has changed,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p>Even during social distancing, there are times when police will have to interact with people in their homes, but law enforcement has generally tried to communicate with people by phone or outside their homes, Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p>The Carbondale board of trustees will hold a vote to formally approve Wilson as chief April 28.<\/p>\n<p>If approved, he will begin work June 1, and have three months to learn the job from Schilling, a veteran of the Carbondale Police Department.<\/p>\n<p>Wilson will also overlap with second-in-command Chris Wurtsmith, who will retire from the Carbondale Police Department in mid-summer.<\/p>\n<p>At a meet-and-greet with Carbondale community members in March, Wilson said it was Rifle Police Chief Tommy Klein who suggested he apply for the open position in Carbondale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very excited, and I look forward to relocating, moving a little closer to the community, and becoming part of Carbondale as I have been with Rifle,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:tphippen@postindependent.com\">tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/rifle-officer-selected-as-carbondale-police-chief\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rifle Police Department Sgt. Kirk Wilson sits with Carbondale Trustee Lani Kitching during an open house for police chief candidates March 12, 2020.Thomas Phippen \/ Post Independent Carbondale Town Manager Jay Harrington has appointed Rifle Police Sgt. Kirk Wilson to be the new chief of police. \u201cI am excited about Kirk\u2019s acceptance of my offer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-30 07:24:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319561\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}