City hires new police chief

Timothy J. Shea has been named the new chief of police for the Boulder City Police Department. His hiring was announced Tuesday evening and he will take the command of the department June 1.

“We had a really strong field of candidates but Shea stood out,” Boulder City Manager David Fraser said. “He had a lot of experience and a strong dose of common sense for how to implement law enforcement practices.”

Shea was the final selection out of five finalists and 34 original applicants, two of whom withdrew their applications.

Fraser was in charge of the hiring process for the police chief and, while he had final say on who to hire, a five-member panel was selected to conduct interviews.

The panel consisted of Fraser, City Administrator Bryce Bolt, Henderson Chief of Police Patrick Moers, and Chamber of Commerce CEO Jill Rowland-Lagan.

“When I set up the panel I really wanted to get a strong perspective about what was needed,” Fraser said. “I made sure to have a law enforcement perspective as well as a community perspective.”

Shea’s hiring comes just a month after former police chief Bill Conger pleaded guilty to failure to perform duty after he chose to not pursue a criminal case against former animal control supervisor Mary Jo Frazier, who is charged with two felony counts of animal cruelty.

Fraser said he did not consider the resignation of Conger in his search for a new police chief.

“I didn’t factor in Conger’s resignation in the hiring process,” Fraser said. “You always want to make sure you get it right and I think our new police chief will have a pulse on this community and interact well.”

Shea was involved in a lawsuit in 2014 when Las Vegas Justice Court Marshal Louis Reale killed himself.

The lawsuit filed by Reale’s wife Debra claimed that Reale killed himself because of a hostile work environment that involved threats and coercion.

Shea was supervising marshal for the Las Vegas Justice Court and Reale’s boss at the time. The lawsuit, which was later dismissed, alleged Shea mounted a “campaign of terrorizing judicial deputy marshals with threats of losing their jobs, criminal prosecution and severe work sanctions if his policies and procedures were not followed.”

Shea has more than 40 years of law enforcement experience and is also a 20-year veteran of the United States Coast Guard Reserves.

Before working in the Las Vegas Court System Shea was bureau chief of field operations for Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office in Washington.

Shea received a Bachelor of Arts in law and justice from Central Washington University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Contact reporter Max Lancaster at mlancaster@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow him on Twitter @MLancasterBCR.