New Othello PD chief says he encourages officers to be out in the community

“I want to keep a proactive policing approach with public safety, traffic safety, drug enforcement, violent crime investigations. I like the proactive approach to policing.”

 New Othello Police Chief Brent McFarlane

OTHELLO — New Othello Police Chief Brent McFarlane said he wants to emphasize the teamwork that makes law enforcement more effective. But it’s also important to keep a focus on individual officers.  

“I think policing is very much a team effort, and no one can succeed alone in our profession. And I just want to reiterate, teamwork, teamwork, teamwork,” McFarlane said. “And at the same time, it has to be a balance with the ‘team over self’ concept. Wellness and family are going to be really important to me.”

McFarlane was sworn in as OPD chief June 8. He replaces Aaron Garza, who was hired as the Othello city administrator May 1. 

He said law enforcement is most effective if officers are out around town. 

“I want to keep a proactive policing approach with public safety, traffic safety, drug enforcement, violent crime investigations. I like the proactive approach to policing,” McFarlane said.  

Garza was appointed as the new OPD chief in January, with McFarlane appointed as assistant chief. Going from detective sergeant to chief in about half a year was a big change, he said, and changes in department administration mean there will be more changes to come. 

“We have a new chief, a new assistant chief, and three brand new patrol sergeants,” McFarlane said. “We’re probably going to have more change within the department than we’ve had in my entire career here.” 

Jaime Mendoza, who was an OPD sergeant, will take over the job of assistant chief July 1. McFarlane said he’s adding a fourth sergeant position.  

“There's a lot of change, and some people can take change as a challenge, but I've always been so proud of our ability to adapt to change and adversity,” he said. “That's one of the things I'm most proud of with our department. The last three, four months we’ve had a lot of change, but we’ve handled it well.” 

Along with people moving into new positions, Othello is growing, and OPD is growing with it, he said. That means officers are not only getting used to new roles, but new officers are being hired. McFarlane said one of his goals is to ensure OPD is visible. 

“I think we have a very young department, and so part of it's going to be training experience that they're building right now. I think proactive policing is being out there and not being in the office,” McFarlane said. “You’re out there doing traffic stops, enforcing the law in a proactive manner, where you're just out there doing it, instead of being reactive, just waiting for the 911 call. They're out there contacting people. If somebody looks suspicious, you're getting out of your car, contacting them. You're driving down the alley at night. If something looks off, you get out and try to do something about it, so it's just being visually present and active.” 

McFarlane joined the OPD in 2014. He was promoted to OPD sergeant in 2016; he has worked as a field training officer and became a detective sergeant in 2021. Part of that job involved working on investigations of major crimes in the city. McFarlane said he didn’t expect to go from detective sergeant to chief in less than a year.  

“I was very happy in the position I was in as detective sergeant,” he said. But he wanted to take advantage of the opportunities offered, and he was influenced by his devout Christian faith. 

“I think God puts us where He wants us at the right time,” he said.  

There was also a conversation with some fellow officers. 

“I was in the investigative role for several years, and I really felt purpose in that, and we got to do a lot of good work. It was actually a lieutenant I was talking to, and I was kind of in the conversation about becoming AC,” MacFarlane said. “Someone had brought up the work I've done in human trafficking and child exploitation (cases), and said, ‘Well, that's kind of your identity.’ I really thought about that, and I said, ‘II don't really want that to be my identity,’ So the opportunity came up, Chief Garza spoke to me about it, and I thought, ‘How many opportunities will have my life to do something like this?’” 

One of his goals is to help OPD officers have the chance to get some of the training he received, he said.  

“To keep a high-quality department, I want to keep good retention, I want to do good recruiting, I want to get our guys trained up, provide them opportunities that they may not have somewhere else,” he said. 

McFarlane got the chance to get experience in a wide variety of police work, from patrolling to field instructor to leading investigations into human trafficking and narcotics.  

“I’ve literally gotten an opportunity to do just about everything I could have possibly dreamed of, and I firmly believe I probably wouldn’t have gotten those opportunities if I were anywhere else,” he said. “I want to continue giving guys those opportunities, focus on officer development, public safety, proactive policing, keeping strong partnerships within our community. Build something we can be very, very proud of.” 

    Brent McFarlane is sworn in as Othello Police Department assistant chief in March. He took over the chief’s job last week.