Tigard Police Chief Jamey McDonald remembers walking through Tigard during the December Holiday Lights Walk when he stopped at a home serving hot cider and cookies out front.
When he introduced himself, the family was already familiar with him, responding, “Oh, you (were) our son’s SRO (School Resource Officer) at Durham (Elementary), and he’s a state trooper now out in Eastern Oregon,’” McDonald recalled. “I’m like, ‘No way!’ So what are the chances?”
While surprised that they would remember him, the chief is a familiar face to many, having served in numerous capacities since joining the Tigard Police Department in 2001. It’s a department he’s proud of and one he’s stayed with it in part because of the caliber of officers he’s encountered and what a “great community” of residents.
Last month, McDonald was appointed to lead a department of more than 70 sworn officers, replacing Chief Kathy McAlpine, who led the progressive department for almost seven years. McAlpine now works for the Oregon Department of Public Safety and Training .
From the ground floor
The new chief has the distinction of working his way through the ranks, serving as a patrol officer, school resource officer, field training officer, firearms instructor and commercial crimes unit detective sergeant. He is believed to be the first Tigard chief to rise through the ranks and become chief in Oregon’s 12th most populous city.
But McDonald didn’t start out wanting to become a police officer, having first received a degree in geography and community planning from Eastern Oregon University. While he called community planning something that “really interests me,” he also recalled a scarce job market in the early 1990s when he graduated.
“So I went and I sold building materials for like eight years, and I finally decided, you know, maybe it’s time to do something that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life — for the rest of my career, at least,” he recalled.
He also had several acquaintances who were in law enforcement and thought it sounded like an interesting career.
What he discovered is “the more I looked into it, the more I thought, ‘wow, this really feels like something that can be a good fit’ and it turns out, years later, it’s been very rewarding.”
Prioritizing officer wellness
Still, it’s a career that has challenges and is very stressful.
As a result, one of his goals is to ensure that officer wellness continues to be a priority, telling those under his command, “I want you to have the best life outside of work and the most stable life outside of work so that when come to work, you can be the best version of yourself here.”
He points out that if things aren’t quite right in an officer’s personal life, it makes it hard to come to work and be focused on doing a good job.
In addition, officers need to have resources available to deal with the trauma they experience on the job, and McDonald wants to make sure they have all the tools needed to effectively do their job — hoping to circumvent personal issues like substance abuse, he said.
That might include getting in a physical workout every day, participating in meditation or even something as simple as providing time to read a good book, he said.
McDonald said he’s found that the cardiac health for police officers in general is dismal, adding that one statistic shows an average life expectancy after retiring is only 18 months.
“We need to be doing more to make sure that officers are staying healthy while they’re working so that they can they actually can make it into retirement and enjoy retirement,” he said.
Embracing the community and partnerships
Meanwhile, McDonald said if people want to chat with him, there are very few things Tigard police can’t talk about unless it pertains to something like an active investigation. He said he’s found the community to expect transparency and accountability.
In addition to Tigard residents, McDonald has gotten to know the local business community as well, having served for 3-1/2 years as sergeant in the commercial crimes unit. While the unit’s initial goal was teaching business owners how to prevent crimes, detectives that were part of the team made it clear they wanted to also solve crimes where merchants had been victimized.
“By the time I got there in 2011, we were focusing almost exclusively on investigations,” he said of a program that is largely funded through business fees.
One innovation the Tigard Police Department has embraced over the last several years is a drone program, which can be used in helping local police agencies who use dogs to track a suspect know how close they are. They’ve proved to be beneficial for other activities as well.
During a recent Tigard fire, an officer was able to send a drone up while a Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue firefighter stood by and watched the unmanned vehicle identify hotspots on the roof. The drone provided more effective intelligence on how to fight the blaze.
Training is key
Over the years, the Tigard community has shown support for the Tigard Police Department. In May, voters handily renewing a 2020 police levy that retained eight police officers and other nonsworn personnel as well as providing continued funding for officer deescalation and crisis intervention training.
While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed some of that training (most must be done in person because of the amount of hands-on learning included), the trainings are pretty much back to normal.
McDonald said the in-person training is important too because it includes people who have interactions with law enforcement.
Those speakers tell officers what their first-hand experiences were like, something “that’s so impactful, and it makes such a big difference to actually be able to do that in person, to be able to hear those experiences … Some of them have been positive experiences. Some of them not.”
McDonald said even earlier in his career, he remembers that Tigard has always placed a high value on making sure officers get trained that will help them to deal with those in crisis. He said while officers may not be able to fix what has sent a person into a state of crisis, they can hopefully get them a level of service that will help them get better.
He praised the partnership between LifeWorks NW and police officers in Tigard, Tualatin, Sherwood and King City, which began in 2022. Known as the Mental Health Resource Team South Cities, a mental health clinician rides with officers during situations involving those suffering behavioral or mental health crises.
Training in deescalation and crisis intervention was in place as part of the original 2020 police levy even before the Jan. 6, 2021, shooting death of Jacob Macduff . Macduff’s death was the first fatal shooting by a Tigard police officer in the more than 60-year history of the department.
A new police station on the horizon
Meanwhile, McDonald said he is cautiously optimistic about plans to build a new police station — along with a new public works building/equipment yard on Wall Street — after having been publicly supported by the Tigard City Council.
“The reality is, we outgrew this building a long time ago and it just doesn’t meet the needs of a modern police facility,” he said, noting that many smaller surrounding communities have nicer facilities.
“So, what will it look like to build a new facility? I don’t know. I think it’s still it’s still a little early to tell what that might look like and to even really think about a timeframe, but what we do know is that the size that the city has purchased is enough to put Public Works and the (police department) on that site, which is really encouraging,” he said.
Another big reason to build a new police facility is to ensure survivability when the so-called “The Big One,” the predicted catastrophic earthquake expected to hit the West Coast at some point.
“We’re worried about what’s going to happen to our facilities,” he said about the catastrophic event, noting that both the police and public works buildings were built well before the current earthquake standards were put into place.
“I guess what I would love to accomplish would be to see a new facility get developed,” he said. “I would love to see us be able to do that.”
McDonald is hoping such a building would be meet local needs for the next 30 to 40 years.
At the same time, he said his department will continue to be engaged in the community — saying TPD attended more than 120 events last year and made over 8,000 contacts with members of the community that were not related to police activity. Those included neighborhood gatherings, festivals and other events.
“You know, being involved in the community is a big deal and so keeping up that relationship with the Tigard community members is key,” he said. “We want people to be engaged so we have to be engaged with the community in order for us to be able to continue those conversations.”
A lifelong Oregonian, McDonald is a competitive soccer player. Now a grandfather, he is also a competitive soccer player. He also camps, snow skis, hikes, fishes and hunts in his spare time.
“I spend as much time outside as possible,” he said.
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