Liberty Lake police chief retiring: Brian Asmus built city’s law enforcement department from ground up

Liberty Lake Police Chief Brian Asmus, the first police officer hired by the city after it incorporated in 2001, has announced his retirement at the end of the month.

Asmus said it was a unique experience to start an entire police department from scratch. “It’s been a journey,” he said. “I have to say I’m really proud of what we accomplished in those 19 years.”

The city incorporated in August 2001. Asmus was hired that December. At the time the city had just signed a six-month contract with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement coverage, and Asmus said he was told the city had no plans to renew it.

Asmus got to work writing policies and budgets. “Where do I start?” he remembers thinking. “There’s no manual for that.”

He got his start in law enforcement as a volunteer reserve officer in Yelm, Washington, for a year. He was hired as a provisional officer, which he did for a year, and then was hired as a traditional officer. He rose steadily through the ranks and was chief of the department for two years before arriving in Liberty Lake.

A couple of months after he arrived, he hired Ray Bourgeois as a sergeant. Bourgeois is now the department’s detective.

“Then we got busy trying to build this thing that exists today,” he said.

Asmus had a desk and a phone. He wore a generic police uniform because the city didn’t have any police uniforms. He borrowed a police car from the city of Spokane and radios from the sheriff’s office. The fledgling police department didn’t even have any guns and the new city didn’t have contracts with any businesses to provide them.

“I went out and bought our first handguns, rifles and shotguns on my personal credit card,” he said.

In his spare time, he worked to negotiate contracts for court services, jail use and prosecutorial services.

When the Liberty Lake Police Department took over law enforcement coverage from the sheriff’s office, there were four officers, including Asmus. “That’s all we had and we were responsible for 24/7 police coverage,” he said. “So we had no days off, no holidays. Our initial team had our blood, sweat and tears into this.”

Now the department is in a building it shares with the Liberty Lake Library and will soon hire its 14th officer. It was among the first police departments in the county to adopt body cameras. “We’ve come a long way since then,” Asmus said. “There’s just so many stories and lots of interesting experiences.”

He first considered retiring last year, but was asked to stay on for a bit longer. He decided he would stay, but planned to retire by January at the latest. “I’ve done this for 30 years and had success,” he said. “The timing felt right.”

While Asmus may be retiring from police work, he isn’t going anywhere. He starts a new job as director of School Safety and Security with the Central Valley School District on Sept. 1, which prompted his departure a bit earlier than planned in January.

“It was like it was meant to be,” Asmus said of his new job. “It matches my skills. It keeps me local. It keeps me in the community I love.”

Asmus said he’d always planned to find a new job after he retired, even if he didn’t know what that would be.

“I’m not done yet,” he said. “I’m 54 years old. I knew I was going to work, anyway, if I retired in January.”

The city is embarking on a search for a new police chief with the goal of hiring someone by the end of the year, Asmus said. Sgt. Darin Morgan will be interim chief in September and October and Sgt. Jeff Jones will be interim chief in November and December. Asmus said both men are interested in taking his job and having them both spend time as interim chief will give them valuable experience.

Asmus said he planned to leave the job quietly, but that wasn’t to be. “There’s really not an opportunity to have a large gathering, which fit in with my plans perfectly,” he said. “The city had other plans.”

The city is planning a drive-by retirement parade Aug. 29 from 2 to 3 p.m. at Orchard Park. Cars will stage on Harvest Parkway near Selkirk Middle School, then go on Mission Avenue to Holl Boulevard and then right on Indiana Avenue. Asmus and his family will be at the corner of Indiana and Harvest Parkway. There will be a place to drop off cards and people are encouraged to decorate signs or their cars.

Asmus said he appreciates the community wants to wish him well.

“It will be a very humbling experience,” he said. “I had a job to do and hopefully I did it well, but I’m not about the recognition piece of it.”