Rio Rancho council hires new police chief
Stewart Steele has more than 30 years in law enforcement
The Rio Rancho Police Department will have a new police chief next month.
City councilors voted unanimously during last week’s governing body meeting to approve Stewart Steele, the current police chief of Chickasha Police Department, as Rio Rancho’s new police chief. Steele is expected to begin his new position on Aug. 7, with a starting annual salary of $114,920.
Michael Geier, the department’s previous chief, stepped down in February with an annual salary of $122,949. Chief Paul Rogers has served as the city’s acting chief since Geier’s departure.
City Manager Keith Riesberg presented his recommendation of Steele to councilors before they voted, saying the Oklahoma police chief stood out as the top applicant from a pool of more than 40 applications from 21 states. Mayor Gregg Hull agreed with Riesberg, who also provided councilors with a written recommendation for Steele before the meeting began.
Hull said the search process for a new police chief was thorough — semifinalists were interviewed by two different committees comprised of the city manager, senior city staff members and members of the city’s fire and police departments. After the city narrowed the candidates to three finalists, two additional committees were formed for further interviews, as well as a one-on-one interview with Hull.
“It was an extremely thorough vetting process that included leaders in the city and leaders in the community and leaders in other law enforcement departments that participated in this highly critical position being filled,” Hull said.
Steele has worked more than 30 years in law enforcement. The Army veteran began his police career in the late-1980s with the Boynton Beach Police Department, before spending the early ’90s with the Signal Mountain Police Department and the Chattanooga Police Department. Steele then returned to Florida’s Boynton Beach police in 1994, where he went on to work for 20 years.
In 2015, Steele was hired as the chief of the Chickasha Police Department, where he has served as the head of a department with 48 employees and an annual budget of $3.4 million.