What They’re Thinking: New Iowa City police chief reflects on first six months

IOWA CITY - When new Iowa City Police Chief Jody Matherly was sworn in Jan. 23, he vowed to hit the ground running.

'I do want to get right to work,” he said at the time, taking over from former Chief Sam Hargadine, who retired. 'We're going to be 100 mph for the first few weeks to get things started.”

Now, the former Altoona and Grinnell police chief who spent 16 years with the Flint, Mich., Police Department, is reflecting on his first six months in Iowa City.

Q: How have the first six months gone?

A: It's gone extremely well.

Q: Why do you say that?

A: When I came here, there were a couple of things I did know. This department, the police department, has a reputation of being a very professional department and is well thought of throughout the state. I was able to confirm that my first few months. Structurally, the department is very sound. They're innovative. The entire staff knows what their role is and they're very well trained.

Q: What changes have you implemented?

A: I haven't made any big changes. I've noticed just a few minor things I thought needed an adjustment, and we've made those.

Q: What goals do you have going forward?

A: When you look outside the police department, we've been a very community oriented agency for a number of years. We are fine-tuning that. My instructions to the staff is, if things aren't going well ... let's change the way we do it. There's some latitude with the community outreach officers ... to rethink how they're doing things to be more effective.

Q: The last homicide the police department investigated was the death of Tong Shao in 2014. Now, your officers have two homicide investigations. How confident are you in the department's ability to handle those cases?

A: Any time a homicide occurs, it's all hands on deck. We work a lot of overtime. We assign a lot of staff to the investigation itself. Any sized agency, it takes a toll on the day-to-day operations. So when you have two in a row ... that taxes our resources. But, I will tell you, I've worked in this career a long time and from what I'm seeing from our staff, when it comes to high-level investigations like homicides, they're as well-trained and tenacious and as good at their jobs as anyone I've ever seen.

l Comments: (319) 398-8238; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com