Meet Severance's First Police Chief Misty Siderfin
SEVERANCE, Colo. (CBS4)- Severance Police Chief Misty Siderfin is going for a tour of her new hometown. Like almost everything else here, she is new in town.
Siderfin had been working in Silverthorne as an officer for 14 years when she found the opportunity she's wanted her whole life, to become the chief of her own police department.
"There was something here, and I don't know how else to explain it but it felt like my calling."
Although Siderfin has only been on the job for five months, but she's been busy the entire time. Severance has never had a police department before, but with a booming population, the town decided it was time to create one. They hired Misty to build the department from the ground up. That's a lot harder than it sounds.
"There's a lot of different things that you would not think of. Creating a mission statement. Creating values and goals of the police department."
She also had to make sure to become POST-certified to operate as a police department, design the patches and the badges for the department- which she drew herself- buy police cruisers, design summons forms so her department could write tickets, buy computers and hire officers all on a tight budget.
Siderfin says hiring people that were on the same page with her really helped out. Not everyone who applied was up for the task.
"It was really finding those people that are willing to start a new agency and understand that we are going to have growing pains."
Before the creation of the department, people in Severance either called the Weld County Sheriff to help them or did nothing at all. Needless to say, the people of Severance are still getting used to having them around.
"People are used to talking amongst each other, and forget to call us."
Despite the growing pains and the long hours, Siderfin says this is her dream come true. She grew up in Arvada and when she was five her family home was burglarized. At the time, an Arvada police officer took time to sit with her and comfort her. She knew then she wanted to be a police officer and in high school, she set the goal for herself to become a police chief.
Today she has the job she wanted in a town that needs her and she says if you have a dream don't be afraid to chase it, "This is something I've always wanted to do and it can be done. Don't let people tell you that you can't do it because it doesn't matter. You can do it if you're willing to put forward the effort, the dedication and you have that passion."