The City of Idaho Falls has hired Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson to replace their own retiring police chief. An Idaho Falls news release announced Johnson’s hire earlier today.
Johnson has been Juneau’s police chief for four years. He said he’s leaving to be close to family. He has kids and grandkids in the Lower 48.
“We’ve got a couple of kids that graduated from Thunder Mountain High School and we’ve just absolutely loved it here,” Johnson said. “As the kids grew older, they moved away and now there’s a couple of grandkids – we would really like our grandkids to know who we are.”
Still, working in Juneau has been one of the highlights of his career, Johnson said, and he’s “a little sad to go.”
When asked about the challenges he’s faced in Juneau with increases in drug addiction, property crime and trying to accommodate a growing homeless population, Johnson said those problems are not unique to Juneau.
“The whole country’s going through an opioid epidemic and you’ve got these issues going on all over the state and all over the country,” Johnson said. “That’s not something you can escape in law enforcement.”
He thinks the state’s criminal justice reform and state budget cuts have added more pressure onto local law enforcement and he said Juneau’s police have stepped up to meet those challenges.
Juneau City Manager Rorie Watt is sad to lose Chief Johnson.
“He integrated himself into the community; he volunteered on nonprofit boards; he had a very public facing presence,” Watt said. “He was (an) incredibly hard worker.”
When Idaho Falls officials asked Watt about Johnson’s job performance, he told them that if he could offer Johnson a raise to persuade the police chief to stay, he would.
Juneau Police Department Deputy Chief Ed Mercer will be acting police chief until Johnson’s replacement is hired, Watt said.
Before coming to Juneau, Johnson served the Salt Lake City Police Department for about 20 years. He also served as a Reserve Intelligence Specialist for the U.S. Naval Reserve. And he taught criminal justice and law enforcement in Salt Lake City high schools.
Johnson’s last day will be July 28th.
