PENDLETON — Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts started searching for what his next step would be about a year ago.

For the last 29 years, Roberts has worked as law enforcement in Milton-Freewater, Umatilla and Pendleton, where he’s served as the chief of police since Jan. 1, 2003. Roberts has been a fixture of the city’s leadership over those nearly 18 years as he led his department with a self-described “commonsensical” and hands-on approach.

Those years of public service came with plenty of benefits for Roberts. But as he turns 52 in January and both his children progress through their educations at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, the tradeoffs over those years have added up.

“I missed out on a whole lot of stuff in terms of family-related matters, and I’m not whining or complaining by any stretch of the imagination. It was a choice that I made,” Roberts said. “But over time those things take a toll.”

It’s taken a physical toll, too.

Roberts said he’s undergone two back surgeries in recent years that have left him with additional medical issues, including the loss of feeling in his left foot that required he essentially relearn how to walk.

He’d asked those that came before him how they made the decision to finally walk away. While they didn’t have anything definitive for Roberts, they assured him that he’d know when it was time.

So when the search for what would come next turned up a job offer, Roberts knew it was time.

“Honestly, I’m a little bit worn out,” Roberts said.

Effective Dec. 1, Roberts is retiring as the Pendleton chief of police. Roberts announced the decision to his department the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 15, and sent an email to city department heads informing them of the decision shortly after.

“Thank you for support through the years, much appreciated,” Roberts stated in the email. “This is truly a bittersweet decision, which has not come easily.”

A graduate from Pendleton High School, Roberts said he’ll be staying in the area as he transitions into a role as a law enforcement and risk management consultant for Citycounty Insurance Service Oregon (CIS).

CIS Oregon provides liability, risk management and workers compensation for nearly every municipal and county government in the state.

Roberts became the youngest chief of police in the state at the time when he took over the department at just 33 years old. He took over a department trying to rebuild its credibility after prior instability brought on by his predecessor, Gary Ward, being fired following an investigation for misconduct.

Roberts brought that stability to the position and the department, though he said he was blessed by and thankful for the innumerable city staff, elected officials and community members who supported him while doing so over the years.

During his years as police chief, Roberts was named the 2009 “Boss of the Year” by the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce and previously served as a president of the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police. In 2019, his department was also awarded the Pendleton Chamber’s Customer Service of the Year award.

“I think he’s done a phenomenal job, and I would put our police department up against any other department in the state,” said Pendleton City Manager Robb Corbett. “I want to make sure we continue that level of professionalism.”

As city manager, Corbett has the sole power to appoint the new Pendleton police chief and said Wednesday, Sept. 16, that he has scheduled meetings with members of the police department to begin evaluating whether that person is already in the department.

“I’ll make a determination shortly as to whether or not there’s an internal candidate that will be appointed or whether we’ll open it up for solicitation,” Corbett said.

In order to preserve stability at the department, especially if the city opts to hire from the outside, Corbett said decisions will need to be made “very quickly.”

Whoever takes over for Roberts in December will be taking over a police department as protests and discourse around the country continue to call for changes to the nature and funding of law enforcement.

Roberts said it was difficult to walk away from the job as law enforcement grapples with its credibility with the public, but that ultimately those considerations were minor relative to his personal and family considerations.

“It’s something that I think is rectifiable, but it’s going to take true leadership, which I think to a certain degree it lacks at a congressional and legislative level,” he said. “Most of the decision making and or prioritization is polarized based on political affiliation, and that’s just not a recipe for success.”

And in his role, Roberts has at times been thrust into the center of that polarization, such as when he was recently asked to testify to the legislature about “general disregard and disrespect” for police.

“Really it got me to a point where I had to start asking, ‘What am I really doing?’” he said. “If I have any wisdom to impart on those who are currently in law enforcement, it would be not to lose perspective of who you are and why you pursued the profession in the first place.”

In the end, the timing felt right for Roberts as he gets to transition on his own terms into a healthier position for himself and his family while remaining a part of the community that he’s served for virtually his entire adult life.

“It really was the perfect storm, and quite frankly it would have had to have been for me to make the decision I did,” he said.