Four law enforcement leaders traveled to Powell last week from Kansas, Illinois, Colorado and Rock Springs, each seeking to become the city’s next police chief.

Picked from a pool of 32 applicants, the four finalists toured the town and police department and visited with community members on Thursday before participating in a series of interviews on Friday.

City Administrator Zack Thorington said he expects to pick a chief from the group early this week.

Tom Herion

Lyons, Illinois, Police Chief Tom Herion would bring bigger city experience to the job — including a decade overseeing police, fire and security at the Midway and Chicago O’Hare airports.

After five years in the Chicago suburb of Lyons, Herion said he thought Powell looked like a “great place to apply,” in part because it’s not a “blue state.”

“Hopefully I don’t offend anybody by that, but I need to be in a place with right-thinking Americans, who appreciate law enforcement, appreciate the police, back their police,” he said at Thursday’s forum. “And this community does.”

Herion also praised the department’s officers, saying they “wear their heart on their sleeves every single day.”

James Rhea

Sgt. James Rhea of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office said his time in law enforcement has helped him build contacts with agents and officers across the state. That includes the Powell area, where he also has family.

“It’s a beautiful area, deep culture, deep and rich in culture and I have great appreciation for that,” he said.

Rhea said he’s spent a lot of his career as a part of high-risk and tactical operations, including on a regional SWAT team and as a former task force officer with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. He’s been with the Sweetwater County department since 2013, based in Rock Springs.

Greg Tuliszewski

After more than three decades in law enforcement that included time as a dispatcher and building a police department from scratch, Greg Tuliszewski thought he was ready to retire in 2023. But soon after leaving his role as the chief of police in Hayden, Colorado, he realized he wasn’t quite ready for the retirement life and joined the Craig, Colorado, department as a lieutenant.

Tuliszewski called Powell “a beautiful town” that’s similar to the areas he’s served in the past. He pledged to bring an approach focused on ensuring the department is a part of the community, where residents feel comfortable approaching police.

“Crime happens everywhere,” Tuliszewski said, but “the nice thing about a smaller community, especially when people are helping each other in this community, [is] it just doesn’t happen as often.”

Cory Williams

Cory Williams currently leads the four-person Holcomb Police Department in his native Kansas, but he also has bigger city experience. He spent six years in Yuma, Arizona — home to up to 200,000 people in the wintertime — where his work included dealing with narcotics coming across the Mexican border. That goes alongside work as a DUI officer, a member of a special operations group, and as a school resource officer. He also expressed particular pride about an event he launched in Holcomb that brings the community together each year with food and festivities.

Williams also has some Wyoming bona-fides, having previously lived in Casper. He and his family still vacation in Wyoming, he said, and have driven through Powell several times.

“Wyoming always draws us back,” Williams said, adding, “What more can you ask for to live and enjoy and retire in a place that you vacation? There’s nothing better than a place like Powell, Wyoming.”