Tag Archive | "Thad Taylor"
Cedar Springs Police Chief Roger Parent announced last month that he would retire August 29, after almost 40 years in law enforcement.
He hired on as the Cedar Springs Police Chief April 15, 2008. Prior to that, he served 34 years with the Kent County Sheriff Department.
"What I've really enjoyed is being able to work with dedicated patrol officers who understand how important it is to provide service to the community along with police protection. Even through these tough economic times, the police officers have been given the proper equipment, training and technology to maintain a professional police department," he noted.
He also highly commended the officers working under him.
"We have great officers. When you don't have a lot of turnovers, and the officers like to work here, they have good relationships with the citizens—that's really a plus. You don't see that everywhere," he explained.
Parent said he will be spending his free time with more recreational activities, including his twin 2-1/2-year-old grandsons.
The city is already searching for a new chief. They currently have an ad up on their website, and plan to post the ad on several professional websites as well. Taylor said they would consider both internal and external candidates. The deadline to answer the ad will be April 25, and interviews would be the week of May 12. "We hope to have a candidate identified with background check and physicals by the end of June, and extend an offer and have it accepted by the first part of July," explained Taylor. He added that the candidate would then start in early August to have three to four weeks of working with Parent.
The Post asked Taylor if he had considered doing what the Village of Howard City recently did—merge with the county Sheriff Department to save money. Under their agreement, the officers became Sheriff deputies and administrative duties went to the county. Cedar Springs has checked into this before, but never acted on it.