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Long-time Muskegon Public Safety chief's retirement a 'bitter moment'

13 ON YOUR SIDE sat down with Chief Jeffrey Lewis before he hands in his badge Friday.

MUSKEGON, Mich. — The City of Muskegon prepares to turn the page this week as long-time Director of Public Safety Jeffrey Lewis hands in his badge Friday.

As 13 ON YOUR SIDE reported, that transition won't go quite as expected.
After the sole candidate to replace him withdrew, administrators had to appoint an interim director.

Captain Andrew Rush will fill the role, according to the city manager’s office.

Rush has been with the department for more than two decades.

The only candidate in the running declined the city’s offer earlier this month, which forced administrators to revert back to square one in the search for Lewis’ successor.  

RELATED: Muskegon's sole candidate for police chief declines job

Despite the shakeup, Lewis told 13 ON YOUR SIDE he has nothing but confidence in the future of law enforcement in Muskegon.

He said the department had a tried and true system in place regardless, one he suggested would carry the department into the post-Lewis era.

“We’re a service in the community and we react to the citizens,” Lewis said. “They are our bosses. We hear them and tailor our service to them.”

Director Lewis said he felt he’d proven some of his earliest critics wrong. They’d characterized Muskegon as a rough place and told him he would never last.

But, more than a decade later, Lewis said he was more than happy with his choice and happy with the progress that had occurred during his tenure.  

Lewis’ career began on the east side of the state back in 1978 following a short stint as a reserve officer in the Village of Manchester. He later served in Ypsilanti.

Lewis came to Muskegon during the Great Recession and said those struggles came to define those first few years on the job.

One of his first priorities, he said, was to address problems with blight and dangerous buildings throughout the city, a move he hoped would also counter crime.

Lewis said his office managed to implement a great deal of positive change in that regard, in addition to having the department accredited.

The outgoing director also pointed to case clearance rates increasing under his guidance to around six in 10.

“I really enjoyed this job," he said. “I enjoyed working with people and because of that, I felt like the stuff I wanted to do, I was able to affect the change, go along with the change. Today, we're much better law enforcement than we were in 1978.”

Lewis said he feels he left just as much of a mark on Muskegon as the city left on him.

His last day is Friday, at which point Interim Director Rush is expected to step in. Lewis says he intends to regroup and decide what his next chapter might hold after he retires.

Moving forward, the city manager’s office said it would look into relaxing several of the job requirements in an effort to widen the net and draw in a larger pool of director candidates.

That will require approval, which the city manager’s office said it expects to receive. Once the revised qualifications have been approved, the city said it intended to relist the position.  

Watch the full interview with Jeffrey Lewis below:

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