Assistant chief Polly Olson will become Appleton's first female police chief
APPLETON – Appleton assistant police chief Polly Olson will become police chief Jan. 4, the Appleton Police and Fire Commission announced Tuesday.
Olson will replace Todd Thomas, who announced in April that he would retire in January.
“I am honored to serve as the first female chief of police for the city of Appleton,” Olson said. “I am excited to continue to build on our foundation of excellence in police service and am committed to strengthening community relationships through our continued neighborhood policing efforts. Thank you to the City of Appleton for allowing me the opportunity to serve in this new capacity.”
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Olson has been Appleton's assistant chief since May 2021. She joined the department in 2001 as a patrol officer and served in a variety of roles, including school resource officer, patrol captain and captain of investigations and support services.
Before starting her career in law enforcement, Olson was deputy coroner for the Outagamie County coroner's office.
She was also born and raised in Appleton.
"As a fellow lifelong Appletonian, I can tell you, it's just a little bit more special when you grow up in this community and have the privilege of serving a leadership role," Mayor Jake Woodford said at a news conference Tuesday.
Olson said one benefit of being an internal candidate was that she's been able to immediately begin the transition process, with Thomas' guidance.
"With me being the assistant chief, there's a lot of things that he's included me in that certainly will make this transition smoother," she said, "and we do have now a few months to make most of the transition hopefully take place by the time he retires."
Thomas, who has served as Appleton's police chief for eight years, expressed confidence in Olson's ability to lead the department.
"She's got the right temperament. She's humble," Thomas said. "It's been exciting to see her grow. She was a lieutenant when I started here as a chief. Quickly, I recognized her potential. I think I probably dragged her along a little bit into the leadership role, because I truly think that all leaders are reluctant leaders, but they do it for the right reasons."
Pamela Rae De Leest, chair of the Appleton Police and Fire Commission, said the commission was "thrilled with the high caliber of candidates" in the search process for a new chief. Olson was chosen from a total of 12 candidates, in a unanimous decision, De Leest said.
"Ultimately, we selected Polly as our top candidate. She has a thorough understanding of Appleton’s community policing policy and will embrace the vision to continue this policy during her tenure as chief of police," De Leest said in a news release.
In 2008, Olson was named Woman Officer of the Year by the Wisconsin Association of Women Police. In 2010, she was named Crisis Intervention Team Officer of the Year by NAMI Fox Valley and, in 2012, she was named the Appleton Police Department's Officer of the Year.
When she steps into the role of police chief, Olson said one of her priorities is to continue building better relationships with underserved populations in the community, something she said Thomas has helped lay the foundation for during his time as chief.
As for being the department's first female chief, Olson said she hopes to inspire others.
"There's only 3 percent of women right now that are in leadership positions in law enforcement," she said. "That's certainly not enough."
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Polly Olson named new Appleton police chief, replacing Todd Thomas
