My name is Timothy Redmond, resident in Hayden, and just happen to be the mayor. These are indeed difficult times and I just wanted to take a moment to talk about our Hayden Police Department.

There was a time when there was mistrust and let’s just say town council and the police department thought little of each other. Everyone knew a change had to happen and when the opportunity to hire a new chief of police offered itself we as the town council understood there had to be buy-in from the whole community.

We changed the process by inviting the community leaders and citizens along with the town council to get us past the bad perception. We were able to hire a leader with integrity and honor, you know him as chief Greg Tuliszewski.

To be honest, he and I don’t always agree but I trust his judgement and feel like the Hayden Police Department has the trust of the community. I was very pleased when he asked us, “What do you want from your police force?” We told him, he listened, and now we have an honorable police force that I and the community trust. It didn’t happen overnight, but we started moving in the right direction, and the culture has changed. I feel blessed for us to be where we are and excited to know we are getting better every day.

I believe we have more than turned a corner, but are cruising down the road with what could be considered “the model” of community policing; it just took leadership. I know that they have prevented some bad things from happening but you don’t know because there has never been an issue once we turned the corner as a community. Bottom line this department is trusted by the community it serves.

Thank you to the men and women of the Hayden Police Department.

Mayor Tim Redmond
Hayden