EVERETT, JAN. 14: After former Chief of Police John DeRousse announced his retirement last month, Mayor Cassie Franklin appointed Deputy Chief Robert Goetz to the role. Chief Goetz was officially sworn in last Wednesday.
Goetz brings more than 35 years of service to the department, with experience in nearly every area at the Everett Police Department (EPD). He was promoted to deputy chief in 2018. Before coming to Everett, Goetz was in the Marine Corps in Southern California.
“I’ve been very fortunate throughout my entire career to have opportunities that have really allowed me to grow as a police officer and as just a human being,” Goetz told Everett Post.
Outside of work, Goetz has a wife and four daughters and enjoys traveling, golfing and hiking.
Everett Post sat down with Goetz to answer questions about what to expect from the new police chief and how EPD plans to address public safety and city issues going into 2026.
Answers and questions have been shortened for clarity.
Q. You’ve been through most of the departments at EPD. What are some common misconceptions community members have about law enforcement?
Goetz: You know, it’s unfortunate that policing is such a mystery to people, right? Because we would prefer folks to really know about what we do, to take away that mystery and to invite them into our world when we can. This job is extremely challenging. I think that if you were to talk to somebody outside of our profession, they would probably say, ‘Yeah, I bet police work is pretty tough stuff.’ It is. It absolutely is. On the other hand, it’s very rewarding.
We are allowed into people’s lives where we’re able to help them, where we’re able to help them by enforcing the law. I could probably go to more than a handful of officers out here that have worked for, you know, 10 to 15 years at this police department, who could give you a story about someone coming up to them and saying, ‘You know what, you saved my life, not because I was dying, but because you took me to jail and got me on the right path.’ Those stories are out there everywhere.
So we help people who are both experiencing trauma and loss, and we help people who are experiencing struggles and addiction and homelessness, and that’s really what our function in society is, not just keeping the peace, but it’s about helping humanity and helping people.
Q. What are your main priorities as police chief going into 2026?
Goetz: First of all, I will say there’s going to be a lot of consistency. And I’m going to say that because we are very fortunate. I was left a police department that’s in really good shape. My predecessors, both Chief DeRousse and Chief Templeman, stewarded this police department in a manner that our community is proud of, and so I’m very fortunate in those terms. 2026 is an important year for us. It really is. I’ve talked about the idea of looking into advancements with our Investigations Division, but the reality for us, internally and externally, is that we will continue to do things like emphasize the reduction in youth crime and youth violence.
One of the other emphases that I really want to work on with our staff is the long-term success and succession of the department. We have a department that is almost segmented into two divisions. You’ve got folks that have been here for a while, and then we’ve got fewer folks that have been here, kind of mid-term, but we’ve got a lot of folks that are new. We’ve hired a lot of people in the last four or three years. And so my responsibility as chief, one of my responsibilities as chief, is to ensure the long-term success of the department by allowing for mentorship to occur at all levels.
Q. As the city faces an ongoing structural budget deficit, how will that impact, or continue to impact, EPD?
Goetz: We’ve been very fortunate. We have a mayor who is extremely supportive of our first responders, both fire and police, and I don’t anticipate at all that is going to change. We feel very supported in the police department. I think we all recognize that budgets can be a challenge. One of the things that I can do as chief is make sure that any expenditures that we have are done in a way that is consistent with the values that we set forward and we are constantly aware of our limitations. So while it might be a concern, we feel very supported as it relates to that, to the degree that our community should feel supported as it relates to the police department.
Q. Homelessness and drugs are two concerns for Everett residents. The multi-dimensional and complex issue is being addressed at all levels of the city. What will be your approach to these issues?
Goetz: I don’t know that I’m necessarily going to take a different approach than what we’ve had over the last several years. And why, you ask, don’t you do something different? I think that we’ve been pretty successful in balancing the need to enforce the law with our strong commitment to things like our co-responders, in getting people the help that they need to address either the issues of being unhoused or addiction issues.
Co-responders have been crucial in helping to address issues for unhoused folks, for mental illness out on the street, and for drug addiction and to get folks to where they really need to be. And in some cases, somewhere within that, that will help them with their mental health issues, or put them on the path to wellness. So with the successes that we’ve seen in these programs, and particularly in the last year and a half, we’ve really seen a greater success in the partnership that we have with our care team.
I know that our community members have, in the last few years, expressed concern about the area of Highway 99 and Airport Road. If you were to go down there now, it is a totally changed area. And the reason why is that we’ve partnered with co-responders; it’s not just been police officers going out there making arrests. We’re doing that, but we’re also utilizing our call responders to get people to where they need to be, other than on the street and in that area. And we do that throughout our community in different emphasis areas. We do that regularly. So my intention is to continue with that approach. It has been successful, and I am always open to new ideas and new approaches. I hope that we can affect someone’s life in a positive way, in order to provide solutions, rather than contribute to their challenges.
Q. What programs, from Flock Safety to youth groups, have been implemented to aid EPD in serving the community?
Goetz: I would look at it in more of a continuum of policing. So policing is always going to change. It doesn’t require us to add a new program. We have. We’ve added the Drone as First Responder, we’ve added on Flock, ALPR systems. We’ve engaged with folks from the Latino Civic Alliance in order to help address youth violence. We’ve continued to engage in things like the homework club in order to connect with kids. We have youth programs across the board that allow not just our school resource officers but other officers within the building to bridge us and the young people in our community.
And so when we talk about reimagining or doing things differently or new programs, what I would say is, like I said, policing is a continuum. It is trying new things that support our mission. And, of course, our mission here is to work in partnership with our community and create an environment where not only do we see a reduction in crime, which we’ve seen over the last several years, but we also have a reduced fear of crime.
Part of our responsibility to our community is not just addressing a crime when it occurs, it’s being out there amongst our community members to help them feel a little more secure in their community.
Q. Flock Safety has been a concern for some of our residents in Everett. What do you have to say about the future of Flock in Everett?
Goetz: When we talk about the program itself and how it’s progressing, it’s a crawl, walk, run, right? We’re kind of between the crawl and the walk right now in terms of its progression. We’ll eventually run, where we’ll have pilots sitting in the pilot chair at the south precinct, almost 24/7 so that we’ll be able to respond to calls as needed. The community has access to the public-facing dashboard already so they can see the number of flights that we’re taking.
But so far, it’s been a huge success. The week of the floods, during that 24-hour period that we were very concerned about flooding in the river area, it was our Drone as First Responder that was out giving real-time information to our Public Works staff that allowed them not to have to send humans in danger. They would normally have to drive out and go next to the river and check the river banks, but we were able to provide them real-time information in order to avoid having to do that. So improved real-time information, improved safety for the employees, not just police, but our Public Works folks.
So a lot of successes associated with that program, but it didn’t come without a lot of work on the front end. I mean, we worked really diligently to make sure that we worked with our community to provide them with information associated with what the system does, what the system doesn’t do, what we would use the system for, and, more importantly, what we wouldn’t use the system for.
As a matter of fact, we’ve been very diligent about this concept, and that is, we won’t ever use it as part of immigration enforcement. We don’t do immigration enforcement. We’re not allowed to by law, and police officers are not civil immigration enforcement people. We don’t monitor people to and from healthcare facilities at all. We don’t monitor First Amendment activity, meaning, you know, protests or whatnot, none of that is allowed under our policy. And that applies both to the LPR and our drone program as well. So we’re really happy with that.
