New police chief will bring some fresh ideas, Rexburg Mayor says

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) - On June 1, the Rexburg City Council ratified a decision by the city's Mayor Jerry Merrill for the new police chief for the Rexburg Police Department. The announcement of the city's new top cop was met with applause and excitement for what the department will be like under it's new leadership.

Mayor Merrill spoke very highly of the cities police department saying, "With all of the growth of the city, we have a new law enforcement challenges that pop up all the time. But, you know, we have a great we probably have the best police force in all of Idaho, if not the country. Here in Rexburg. All of our patrol officers, detectives, everybody there are just great people and very skilled at what they do."With our new leadership, they will build on the previous leadership. Chief Turman has done a great job getting our police department trained, our officers very well trained. And our new police chief, Josh Rhodes, will continue that and he'll bring in some new and fresh ideas that he has and just keep the ball rolling and keep our police department in good shape and doing a great job as they work, as they've done for years and years."

Mayor Merrill says while the transition may be difficult, the department and the new chief know, "We have their back, and we support them. And we know we have confidence that they do a great job. And we just want our new police chief to know that we do support him and we will do everything we can to help him be successful."

Currently Lieutenant Rhodes is the leader of the departments patrol division. He will be appointed to the position of Top Cop and Chief of the department Wednesday, June 15, 2022 during the next city council meeting.

After that , Chief Rhodes will have a week to be under the tutelage of the current Chief Shane Turman until he fully retires later in June.

"Chief Turman is here he'll be he'll be staying on for a week, basically after the new chief is sworn in as a basically as a consultant to help train even or even right now they're doing a lot of training and working together to make sure that, you know, that they know all the ropes and he'll he'll stay on as a consultant for that week," Mayor Merrill said.

The mayor says he is excited to see what the new chief will bring to the city and how the department will grow with him.