It took more than seven months for the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office to find a full-time marshal after the resignation of Nancy Gardner in March, following her suspension in October 2017. Cmdr. Brian Armstrong served as acting marshal during the long job search, which had to be restarted after Town Manager Russ Martin’s initial choice, Randy Foster, bowed out due to family issues.
So it comes with some relief to the police department that there is now, after all this time, a new marshal. Corey Rowley was sworn in Oct. 15, at the Camp Verde Courthouse. After just two weeks, Rowley is still in the stage of learning some of his officers’ names, and has barely had a chance to explore the area he now calls home. But the new marshal says he has been extremely pleased with the welcome he has received so far.
“I’m not great with names but I remember faces,” Rowley said of his effort to acclimate to the 39 staff members — 22 of them uniformed police officers, not counting Rowley and Armstrong — at the office. As his first action since starting, Rowley is in the process of personally interviewing all of them.
“I really am pleasantly surprised at the desire of the officers to help each other out and back each other up. The complete staff from dispatch to records to support staff — how well they work together has been the biggest surprise to me.”
“He has a personality that is a good fit with the department and is very community-minded in his thinking,” Armstrong said of his new boss. “He has been very easy to work with and I believe he and I will have a good working relationship, and he has a good management philosophy that he will be sharing with the department and community soon.”
Rowley is placing a large banner at the entrance to the Marshal’s Office that reads “Setting the PACE,” the new motto that Rowley seeks to implement at the CVMO. PACE stands for Professionalism, Accountability, Community and Excellence.
“I think if there’s anybody I want the community to know, it’s that I’m very approachable, and I have a passion for people,” Rowley said. “I love human interaction and I love building relationships, so I don’t want people to think that I’m not approachable and that they can’t have a conversation with me if they feel that they’re passionate about something.”
As a newcomer to Camp Verde, Rowley sees it as his responsibility to dig deep into the community. He attended Fort Verde Days the weekend before he started the job, and enjoyed the chance to observe the parade as one of his last semi-anonymous moments in the town. He has made a commitment to attend every town council meeting he can, describing them as the “pulse of the community.”
Rowley comes to Camp Verde by way of Yakutak, Alaska, where he was police chief. He describes the switch from rainy, cold and spread-out Yakutak to sunny, warm, and tight-knit Camp Verde as a “complete 180” but says that the transition has not been that difficult so far. The biggest change has been no longer sleeping next to his radio, as Rowley did for years in the small police department. He is happy to have the opportunity to delegate to other officers a little more.
Though he had never lived in Arizona before, his grandfather, who passed in March, grew up in Prescott and actually attended school in Camp Verde. As a self-described history buff who once wanted to be an archaeologist, Rowley says he is excited to learn more about the town’s heritage, especially its American Indian culture.
“I love to think about how Camp Verde became Camp Verde.”
Rowley describes the town as comfortable and even more welcoming than he had hoped. He is planning for a long future in the CVMO — he still has 16 years before his pension allows him to retire, and he hopes to fulfill them. Already, he is thinking about how the CVMO will adapt to a growing town years in the future.
“To me it’s exciting,” Rowley said. “I know it’s nerve-wracking for the officers but I have been in this situation before, where we have a new chief come in, somebody who we did not know, so I know what they are going through. I know those feelings. But what I’m excited about is what I have to bring to the table that is going to help them.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
