Mathews speaks on experience

During the Jan. 8 meeting of the Thermopolis Town Council, Julie Mathews was appointed by Mayor Mike Chimenti as the new police chief, Her law enforcement experience is quite varied and goes back to the late 90s.

Mathews started with the Riverton Police Department in September of 1999 as a communications officer. Four years later she went to patrol. There is a branch at the Riverton department which lends out an officer to the Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI), which she was for awhile before returning to a patrol capacity. She also earned dual certification in communications and patrol.

After another stint in communications, an investigator spot opened at Riverton and she was selected for it. She was then selected to be detective sergeant - the first woman in the position there - putting her third in command of more than 20 officers.

In 2010, she married her husband and moved to Thermopolis, but she was still working in Riverton. After three years of that, she decided enough was enough and she joined the Thermopolis Police Department for a year on patrol. After a brief separation from the department, she came back on as an animal control officer and dispatcher. She is also the administrator for the in-house data system with the Thermopolis Police Department.

Reflecting on her time at Riverton, she said almost everybody knows it's "a pretty busy place." She helped with homicide investigations, as well as cases involving child abuse, sexual abuse and any other major felonies. She pointed out she did her own crime scene processing, and in her career she's worked with a number of agencies including the DCI, U.S. Marshals, U.S. Border Patrol, the FBI, grand juries, and attended multiple autopsies.

In 2010, Mathews was nominated for Lawman of the Year through The American Legion, and She's received three DUI Governor's Awards for officers who have done exceptional work in DUI enforcement.

Mathews would like to work on building up community policing, and the department is heading in that direction. She said she's excited and honored to be able to serve the community as police chief. "I have a lot of experience in a lot of different areas, and I hope to bring some of that experience here and share it so we can provide better service to our public."