Neosho Chief of Police Peter Russell joins the Morning Newswatch
“This is where I belonged.”
Those are the words of the Neosho Chief of Police, Peter Russell, who joined the Morning Newswatch on Thursday to speak about his new position.
Russell spent more than 11 years working for the Neosho Police Department in the early 2000s before moving on to ultimately work for New Hampshire Police Standards and Training in 2020, which is an umbrella agency for the state that works with over 248 different agencies.
“I helped to work with changing the culture there to help provide a better training environment, a better oversight environment for our law enforcement officers and our agencies,” Russell said. “I just rose through the ranks there. I was very fortunate, very blessed to have a great supervisor, great mentors there to help me along the way. And when the position came open here, I knew I had to come back home.”
Transparency and how well the public responds to it was something Russell learned while in New Hampshire, saying he wants his officers to be as transparent with citizens as possible.
Russell also wants his officers to be someone the public can trust, in all aspects of life.
“Everybody we meet, we have to greet, we have to form a relationship with,” Russell said. “How can you truly understand somebody and have compassion for somebody’s position if you don’t take the time to walk a mile in their shoes. To hear the story that they’re going through, to find the best possible solution given their circumstances, you have to be a people person and you have to develop these relationships.”
Russell is excited to get his mission for the City of Neosho underway, and he believes his officers are up for the task.
“There are the men and women that are working there (who) are absolutely phenomenal people,” Russell said. “They believe in the mission of law enforcement. It’s hard to find and have seen so many police officers in many different areas. It’s so hard to find people who are dedicated to that mission, who actually care about that and give something more than just coming in and getting a paycheck, but give something more than themselves back to the community. It’s been very humbling to come back to that environment.”
What is the biggest focus for Russell as he steps into his new role? Getting the drug problem under control.
“The big problems that we really need to track or tackle right now that a lot of us here suffer with are the drug and property crime problem,” he said. “Drugs are at the root of all things, whether it be the property crimes or violent crimes. So, the things we have to do is find alternative ways to get people treatment or to hold people accountable for violating that particular part of the law.”