Urbandale Police Chief Ross McCarty Has Retired

URBANDALE, IA — Police Chief Ross McCarty retired after more than three decades with the City of Urbandale on Tuesday, an announcement made late Wednesday by City Manager A.J. Johnson said. McCarty has served as chief since March 20, 2009.

“I want to thank Ross McCarty for more than 33 years of service to the city,” Johnson said in the news release. “He is a well-known and respected figure in our community who has served Urbandale well and has many accomplishments of which to be proud.”

McCarty, who became a sworn officer in the community in 1984, managed a department budget of $6.2 million and a staff of 51 sworn officers and nine civilian employees. The department is among only 3 percent of law enforcement agencies in the United States — and one of just eight in Iowa — to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies, the announcement said.

Under McCarty's leadership the department also raised the profile of National Night Out, an annual community safety and crime prevention event for which the city was ranked eighth in the nation in 2017 for attendance among cities its size, and saw two officers, Curt Vagjrt and Andy Dobbins, honored with the inaugural U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Community Policing for implementing Urbandale’s Culture of Integrity program for middle school youths.

Johnson said the city began plans to replace McCarty in September, when he announced his retirement plans. In the interim, duties are being handled on a rotating basis by captains Dave Disney, Rob Johansen, Kent Knopf and Matt Logsdon.

Johnson expects to announce a new chief of police after the holiday season.

Patch file photo, Melissa Myers