POLICE CHIEF TO RETIRE

Dinse Hired In 2000, Has Overseen Several High-Profile Cases

In what he described as a "very difficult decision," Salt Lake City Police
Chief Rick Dinse announced Wednesday he planned to retire by early next year.

"I've been toying with the idea for a while," Dinse said. "I've got 40
years in the business. I think it's time to try something different.
Retirement is something I've been looking forward to."

Dinse said he informed Mayor Rocky Anderson of his decision last week. He
said he wanted to give the mayor ample time to find his replacement and not
leave the city with a long-term interim chief.

Meanwhile, Anderson said he would look both in-house and outside the
department for a replacement. Soon he will be putting together a search
committee of city employees and non-city employees to cull recommendations
about who should be the new chief.

Dinse didn't plan on making his retirement public this soon. A memo
announcing his retirement intended only for interoffice use was
accidentally e-mailed Wednesday to news media. But Dinse said it was
probably for the best.

"If I didn't go public I may not have made (the decision) ever," said
Dinse, who noted he had been going back and forth on whether to step down.

In the memo, Dinse told his officers that "it has been a privilege and
honor to be your chief . . . I just want to take this opportunity to say
thank you for making my time as chief so personally satisfying and rewarding."

After consulting with his family, Dinse said they all agreed they'd like to
spend more time with each other and travel more, and Dinse would like to
spend more time with his new granddaughter.

"When you want to be other places than the office, it's time to move on,"
he said.

Dinse was hired as Salt Lake City's police chief in 2000 after spending 34
years with the Los Angeles Police Department. He was chief deputy with the
LAPD by the time he retired from that department, overseeing the western
Los Angeles district, which included the Los Angeles International Airport,
Hollywood and Venice Beach. Dinse was significantly involved in the Los
Angeles Police Department's handling of the 1984 Summer Games. He was
planning coordinator for the 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II, a field
commander during the 1992 riots and a task force commander during the 1994
Northridge earthquake.

His comparatively short tenure in Salt Lake City was also active. The 2002
Olympics, the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping and the Lori Hacking murder all
happened on his watch.

"Those cases were high-profile and certainly had some scrutiny that
occurred, in the Smart case particularly. I don't see those as anything
negative. There were things to be learned from all of the cases. I see
those as accomplishments, not negatives," Dinse said.

The people he worked with in Salt Lake City were the highlight of his
career, he said.

"They are exceptional. They have made this department one of the best of
its size in the nation," Dinse said. "It's been an enjoyable time. Cutting
that cord has been difficult."

Assistant Chief Scott Atkinson said the respect officers had of their chief
was mutual.

"He brought a lot of good things to the department. He's a great mentor, a
great leader. He helped us to move forward and brought a lot of integrity
to the department. We will all miss him," he said.

Anderson confirmed that. "I've had police officers tell me they've never
worked for a chief they've had so much respect for," the mayor said. "I've
really enjoyed the open and candid relationship chief Dinse and I have
had." Officials from other law enforcement agencies had high praise for Dinse.

"If all my police chiefs I dealt with were Rick Dinse, I'd have an easy
life," said Jeff Sweetin, who oversees the Rocky Mountain region for the
Drug Enforcement Agency.

He said Dinse participated in groups such as the Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs Committee and the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area
program.

"He's the finest chief I've see in 36 years of law enforcement, and that
includes in Los Angeles," said HIDTA director Steve Gorman.

The local head of the DEA, Barry Jamison, had equally high praise.

"The DEA considers the Salt Lake City Police Department, and in particular
Rick Dinse, to be one of our biggest allies," he said. "The difficult
issues suddenly become easy when you're dealing with Rick Dinse."

Murray Police Chief Pete Fondaco, who is also chairman of the Law
Enforcement Administrators and Directors group locally, said Dinse's
retirement would affect the entire county.

An exact date of retirement won't be picked until later, Dinse said. Until
then, he said he still had a few goals to accomplish.

"There are always things you never really fully complete. I don't think any
chief that leaves a job can say they accomplished all his or her goals. You
should always have something to challenge you," he said.

Currently at the top of the chief's "to do" list is getting a bond measure
approved to build a new police headquarters, an Emergency Operations Center
for the city and a new patrol division for the east side.

Dinse replaced Reuben Ortega, whom Anderson vowed to oust when running for
mayor in 1999.

And when asked what he would be looking for in a replacement for Dinse, the
mayor often described someone unlike Ortega, who used heavy force to crack
down on drug users at the Liberty Park drum circle and deputized Salt Lake
City police officers as Immigration and Naturalization Services agents in
an effort to crack down on illegal aliens.

"I won't be hiring a police chief that would send in police in full combat
gear because somebody might be smoking a joint in the drum circle,"
Anderson told reporters. "We want to have someone who has a lot of energy
and who brings innovation to the job," Anderson said.

Dinse said he and his wife still have a home in California and would
probably spend the majority of their retirement there, closer to other
family members. Initially however, he said they would probably stay in the
Salt Lake area and do some traveling.

Although he is retiring, Dinse said he wasn't closed to the idea of working
again. If an offer came up to work in the areas of Homeland Security or
emergency preparedness he'd be willing to listen.