City begins recruitment process for police chief

By Stefanie Donahue

It’s been just over three months since Mike Haslip retired as Blaine Police Department chief.

To take his place, former Ferndale police department chief Michael Knapp came out of retirement and took the helm as interim chief. Knapp, who had an extensive career in law enforcement, retired in 2016.

Last October, city manager Dave Wilbrecht said he expected the city to take about six months to find a permanent replacement. With the city a bit behind schedule, Knapp has agreed to stay on a few months longer until the city finishes recruitment, Wilbrecht said.

On February 7, the city released a request for proposals for recruitment services to hire a police chief that will oversee the department of 11 commissioned officers, two full-time office employees and one other part-time employee. Applicants must submit proposals by 4 p.m. on Friday, March 2.

“We’ll make a decision about hiring after we complete the recruitment process and we should know more specifically about that during the consultant section process,” Wilbrecht said in an email. “We expect the consultants will be experts in recruiting police chiefs and have solid experience and knowledge about the recruitment and selection process as well as information about prospective chiefs.”

City staff will conduct interviews between Monday and Friday, March 12 and 16 and will enter into negotiations as early as Monday, March 26. If required, the proposed award of agreement will be brought to the city council on Monday, April 9. See the full request for proposal at

bit.ly/2Egi8mj.