Comanche Nation Police Chief Retires After Three Decades

On Wednesday, March 27, Comanche Nation Police Chief Ron Niedo celebrated his retirement at Watchetaker Hall after 38 years of service.

Collogues, friends and community members gave speeches about their experiences with the Comanche Nation Police Department and how they appreciated Niedo’s work.

Including Tribal Administrator Julia Mantzke, CBC Member Robert Tippeconnie and Assistant Chief Kieran Daly.

“One of the things that Chief Niedo focused on was finding individual strengths in the officers and letting them how to enhance those,” he said. “So, how to make their strengths stronger and their weaknesses as stronger. So, he didn't micromanage at all and his philosophy is basically, you know, ‘An officer is going to learn. He's going to go out, he's going to make some mistakes, but he, as long as he's learning from those mistakes.’ The other thing that he did, too, was he brought up the pay for the officers. Actually, got a pay scale together and made it to where it's much more competitive.”

Daly said Niedo was also a supporter of mental health.

He also said personality was a big part of Niedo’s leadership.

“He doesn't take things personally. He doesn't take things, you know, he's not, ‘Hey, it's the end of the world every day’…you know, the doom and gloom and all the stuff that's going around us. You know, he focuses on the here and now and what's going on with his people, what's going on within, you know, his area, things that he can make a difference with,” Daly said. “Everything else is just; it doesn't seem to bother him, which is nice because he's not carrying all that extra baggage with him to work. He comes to work, he does his job, he makes sure everybody else does their job, makes sure everybody else is safe. If anybody needs any help, he's there. He doesn't, he's never, I've never heard him complain when anybody's ever asked him, ‘Hey Chief, can you help cover this? I need some help with this funeral escort’ or ‘Can you do this?’ He doesn't, never complained and he never was scared of anything. He wasn't scared of nothing. There are plenty of times where Chief's like, ‘Shoot, I'll do it.’”

He said he didn’t enjoy saying goodbye to Niedo as chief.

“Chief wanted to retire about two years ago,” Daly said. “We squeezed another two years out of him, and we were trying to squeeze another year out of him, but there's so much going on, I think, in the outside world and just with politics across the street. It's a lot of pressure, and when you've worked, I think, as long as he has, you fear that whether it be politics, health, or just, you know, overall circumstances cuts that short for you. You don't get to want to get to do the things that you would like to do. You know, it becomes, I think, a burden at some point and so I am happy for him because he wants to retire.”

He said a good chief is one who’s calm in stressful situations.

“To me, I think some of the best chiefs that I've seen out there are best leaders in law enforcement. You can't be high-strung. You can't be. I mean, you're just a heart attack waiting, first of all. And second of all, when you're high-strung, everybody else is high-strung. When you're calm in situations, then everybody else will stay calm as well,” Daly said. “You know, you don't; you want somebody that tries to find the positive, even though you're surrounded by the negative. And even when you can't, you still are not afraid as far as to move forward and deal with it. So, I think somebody, you got to have the right mannerism. You just got to be, you got to be chill. You can't let things get too excited.”

He said he hopes Niedo continues his work in public service.

“I'm hoping he gets into politics. I don't know if he'd want the headache, but he has a mannerism for it. He does listen. He's mild-mannered. Who’s not somebody I think that would get up there and start yelling at others, as far as politicians. He's one that will try to find a common-sense solution. And so, I'm hoping that he doesn't just give up service, in a sense,” Daly said. “Because to me, politics, if you don't, if you have somebody that's good and they know what they're doing and they have the right intent, they could be a good service. Not always, but you know, it doesn't always work out there. But I'd like, I'd hope he'd stick around.”

At his retirement party, Niedo thanked those he worked with and how grateful he was.

He also received a Pendleton and two plaques, a gift basket, a cake and cards.