LPD’s new assistant chief was ‘called to this profession’ on 9/11

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Lincoln Police Department welcomed its newest assistant chief, Ryan Dale, last week.

Dale was promoted from the head of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force and will now help oversee LPD.

He said the decision was all about making a difference in the community as well as the department.

The father of five said he and his family are excited about the new role.

“It kind of surprised me during the whole promotional process, how much it weighed on a couple of my kids,” he said. “They were really excited about it, and every day when I got home, they’d ask me if I’d heard anything.”

Dale started his career with LPD in 2003 and said he’s loved every minute of it.

But growing up, a job in law enforcement never even crossed his mind.

“When 9/11 happened, that was kind of the flashpoint for me where I first felt called to this profession,” Dale said. “Just seeing first responders — police and fire — running to the danger, something about that resonated with me.”

Since becoming assistant chief, Dale has been working to fill the shoes of Assistant Chief Brian Jackson, who will be retiring in April.

One thing he’ll be focusing on is building relationships between the police department and the public.

He said there’s always time to meet new people and help them.

“A lot of people think of the police just out making arrests and things like that,” Dale said. “But the majority of the problems we deal with, you can’t just arrest your way out of those problems. You need the community partners to have a well-rounded, global approach.”

He said traffic enforcement should be focused on roads with the highest risk of crashes, like O Street.

“O Street’s certainly been, throughout my whole career, has often been one of those locations where there’s common street racing, things like that,” Dale said. “Officers have to be out proactively addressing that.”

He also said he’d have a “multi-faceted” approach to recruiting and retaining officers.

To him, it’s essential to have balance between work and home life so the job doesn’t “consume you.”

“You deal with a lot of trauma,” he said. “And you have to be able to disconnect from that when you go home.”