Lake Ozark has a new chief of police

City Attorney Chris Rohrer also Zoomed in from his vehicle on his way to court.

Christiansen comes to the city with more than 27 years of professional law enforcement experience, most recently serving as police chief of Linn Creek. Before that, he spent 26 years at the DuPage County, Ill., Sheriff’s Office, progressing through its patrol and detective divisions and eventually serving as a sergeant within their civil division and accreditation and training programs.

According to City Administrator Harrison Fry, Christiansen’s professional service includes volumes of experience in training and development, grants, patrol functions, accreditation and supervision.

He possesses a B.A. and M.A. in criminal social justice from Lewis University and is a 2012 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Police Staff and Command. While working for the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office, Christiansen also worked as an adjunct instructor at Aurora University for 15 years where he was a founding member of its criminal justice advisory board. He also worked at the College of DuPage as a GED instructor and coordinator and he has years of experience as an accreditation manager, trainer and contractor for a series of coroners’ offices in Illinois.

Outside of his professional experiences, Christiansen is a co-founder of Celebrate Differences which is a not-for-profit supporting people with disabilities and their families. He has had extensive involvement with the special needs community for the past 18 years, also co-founding the A Pinch of Happiness Spice Shop in Camdenton.

Before asking aldermen to vote, Mayor Dennis Newberry said after vetting 10 applicants for the position, “It soon became very apparent that Mr. Christensen was at the top of that list and stood out.”

Alderman Krista Watts, who served on the hiring committee, said she felt Christensen was just what the city was looking for.

 “In every meeting, in everything the officers said they were looking for, I felt like we had that in this candidate,” she told the board.

Christensen said he was looking forward to getting started and “making the agency even better than what it is. I plan to hold an all-staff meeting as soon as possible. I need to hear from the officers, the dispatchers, the department heads about what they feel we need from me,” he said.

In late November, Gary Launderville, who has been chief of police for the past eight years, informed the board he would be retiring at the end of the year. Fry put together a search committee that included Newberry, Watts, Alderman Matt Wright, Jason Burle, who owns the S.N.A.F.U Bar in Lake Ozark, George Tucker, who owns Tucker’s Shuckers and Neon Taco, and former Lake Ozark Municipal Judge Richelle Christensen, who was elected in November to serve as Camden County’s next prosecuting attorney.