The Covington Police Department has a new chief heading the force.

Andrew McCurdy started July 1 as the police chief after former chief Kevin Klason retired June 30.

McCurdy still works for the King County Sheriff’s Office but has been assigned as the chief of Covington under a contract between the sheriff’s office and the city, McCurdy wrote in an email.

McCurdy is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area but has been living in the Puget Sound area since 1996.

He comes from a family of police.

McCurdy  said both his father and mother were police officers in California and his brother is a sergeant with the King County Sheriff’s Office.

His career in law enforcement started in 1991 where he was a Community Service Officer in San Francisco.

Five years later, in 1996 McCurdy was hired as a police officer in Washington.

He said after two years he was transferred to the King County Sheriff’s Office and was assigned to the Maple Valley Precinct.

Since starting with the King County Sheriff’s Office in 1998, he has held a number of different position.

He has worked as a patrol deputy, a Covington Police Department master officer, a detective in the special assault unit, a patrol sergeant at Maple Valley, a detective sergeant in the internal investigations unit, a Sheriff’s Office Advanced Training Unit Sergeant at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien among others before returning to Covington as chief.

This is McCurdy first time as police chief.

“I never really aspired to be a police chief but this is a unique position that was hard to pass up,” McCurdy said. “I loved working in the city of Covington as a patrol deputy.”

He said the city of Covington is “busy enough to keep things interesting but is still a pleasant community to live and work in and the citizens seem to appreciate what we do for them.”

He added, he hopes to stay as Covington’s police chief for a long time.

As a first time police chief, McCurdy hopes to find more ways to communicate with both staff and residents in order to determine what the community is concerned about and what they expect from the police department.

“Being a police officer is really all about building relationships with people, but too often we only have opportunities to interact with people during times of crisis,” he said.

In his short time back to Covington, McCurdy said he has an idea of some of the problems the city faces. He added won’t begin to know what is really going on until he talks with residents and does more research.

He sees property crimes appear to be an issue in Covington and violent crimes appear to be low.

McCurdy said the use and the abuse of heroin and related crimes in Covington are growing and he doesn’t think the city is prepared for the problems they would face if this doesn’t get managed now.

“I am already working to better coordinate education, treatment and enforcement efforts to better address the problem before it becomes an epidemic,” he wrote.

McCurdy said he has worked with Klason before and believes, “he did a great job of laying a foundation of trust and building a partnership with the city and its residents.”

McCurdy said he only hopes to match Klason with regard to the quality of care and service he provided to the city.

McCurdy is currently working with the department’s budget and hopes to figure out ways to better allocate resources and find ways to add more officers to the department in the coming years, he said.

McCurdy took part in Covington Days over the weekend by taking a seat at the dunk tank.

McCurdy wrote he hopes to meet as many residents as he can at community events, neighborhood association meetings and at the city’s National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4.