Meet The New Chief Of Bartlesville's Police Department: Kevin Ickleberry

Bartlesville has a new Police Chief, after former Chief Tracy Roles was promoted to Assistant City Manager.

The new Chief Kevin Ickleberry is no stranger to Bartlesville. He was born and raised there and has been with the department for nearly 30 years.

Chief Ickleberry said when he was seven years old, a Bartlesville police officer lived next door to him and that officer became his idol.

Now Ickleberry is the chief, and he said what makes him different is this is home, and he knows the community and the officers very well.

"I am very excited. I started this career 33 years ago and really never thought I'd be where I am today,” said Ickleberry.

Ickleberry said it is an honor to lead the department and serve the people in the community he loves so much.

Ickleberry started as a reserve officer in 1998, worked as a Washington County Deputy for a short time, became a full time officer in 1995 and has never left.

"I love and cherish this community. I love serving this community and I love serving the officers in this department. We've got a great department and great officers and we are going to be moving forward, continuing the flow Chief Roles has started,” said Ickleberry.

Ickleberry has done it all in his three decades in law enforcement. He's worked patrol, been a detective, supervised the special operations team, and most recently was in charge of internal affairs for the department to make sure they were doing things the right way.

Now he's the boss and said he's focused on recruiting good officers, mental wellness of both officers and the Bartlesville citizens, and training officers.

"This past year we started putting together the crisis response team, which is a mental heath unit with mental health professionals and officers,” said Ickleberry.

Ickleberry believes the future for Bartlesville is bright.

"I want the officers and citizens to know they can trust me and I want to earn their trust. And I want to serve both the officers and citizens, and being from Bartlesville I think I can do that,” said Ickleberry.