After 34 years, this Tri-Cities police chief is calling it quits
Ben Majetich wears his pride on his sleeve.
During a Wednesday tour of the city’s new police station, the West Richland police chief makes no hesitation in pointing out every bell and whistle of the 20,500-square-foot facility.
It is the “premiere facility of the Northwest,” after all.
Majetich, 57, dedicated countless hours of his own time to bring the building to fruition, borrowing ideas from police facilities from around the country.
It’s now the crown jewel of his 8-year tenure with the department, he said, and now he’s looking to tap the brakes a little.
After more than three decades in law enforcement, this Tri-Cities police leader has announced his retirement.
Majetich’s last day with the department is May 20, though he and his wife plan on staying in the community.
“I wanted to do 30 years, to be honest with you. And now I’m at 34 years,” he said.
“I’ve experienced everything, good and bad, on this job. And I like to think I really contributed to the betterment of not only the agencies I’ve worked here, at Pasco and here in West Richland, but the Tri-Cities as a whole,” he told the Herald.
Captain Thomas Grego with the West Richland Police Department was picked as the city’s next police chief at Tuesday night’s council meeting. His promotion will be effective May 23.
Pasco roots
The son of a pipefitter, Majetich and his family came to the area from the Youngstown, Ohio, area in April 1980. Mount St. Helens would blow its top off the following month, a vivid welcome for the new Tri-City resident, he said.
Majetich spent the majority of his career — roughly 26 years — with the Pasco Police Department, having worked in multiple leadership roles throughout the department, from the street patrol division and investigations, to the city’s lead defense tactics instructor and a brief stint as the city’s SWAT team lead.
During his tenure, he grew into one of the city’s most public-facing officers.
“He’s an extremely committed, dedicated guy to the organization. In his time in Pasco, he was never stagnant. Always moving,” said Pasco Police Chief Ken Roske.
Roske and Majetich started their careers around the same time in the 1980s.
Majetich found his stride as a sergeant in the city’s detectives division, and found that he really enjoyed investigation work.
So much so that after his retirement from law enforcement this year he plans on pursuing full-time work with the state, specifically at Adult Protective Services.
“I’ve always wanted to try something different my whole entire adult life,” he said. “I love investigations... That’s something I enjoy and a skill that I can use to continue to benefit the community.”
During his time at Pasco, Majetich said the city experienced overwhelming growth that neither the city nor department was prepared for. Now, he’s trying to set up West Richland on a better path than their neighbors to the east.
“I lived through that growth in Pasco. They cut back in public safety, they weren’t prepared for that,” he said.
Crossing the river
In 2014, Majetich and his wife left their dream home in Pasco to make a move to West Richland. He’d just been hired by the police department as a captain.
He’d never thought about leading a department of his own until he took a promotion to the top job in 2016.
“It almost felt like Forrest Gump in that you go through life, do good things and good stuff happens,” he said.
The West Richland Police Department was in somewhat “disarray” when Majetich came onto the scene — the policing agency was bleeding talent and had troubles retaining officers long term.
“The morale was low, and the way procedural things were run wasn’t very amicable for people to stay here,” he said. “I really wanted to establish that identity and that pride so that people can stay here. And since I’ve become chief here, I’m proud to say that nobody has left here. They either stay here or retire.”
Majetich said he also worked on community engagement, which eventually paid off when voters approved the department’s bond to build the new facility in April 2019.
Alongside antique batons and other historic police paraphernalia, political signs for and against the measure have been affixed in a display case in the new building.
Majetich said voters back then were overwhelmingly in favor of a new police station, though a fissure about the size and scale divided many.
“(He’s a) great man. He promised me five years, and he’s given me more than that,” Mayor Brent Gerry said at the April 5 council meeting, where Majetich announced his departure. “The last hurrah was to create the most state-of-the-art, beautiful police facilities by the voter-approved bond of $12.5 million, and he hasn’t disappointed.”
As a detective, many cases have stuck with Majetich over the years.
One crime he’s disappointed he won’t be around to help solve is the 1987 case of Tracy Smith. The 21 year old Pasco woman was found stabbed to death at a reservoir near the Tri-City Airport. She was known to use drugs but had a rapport with the police.
Majetich said he was handed the case in 1991 as a new detective. He worked it on and off for about nine years, but leads kept running cold. No suspects have ever been publicly identified in the case.
Her family still calls the Pasco department from time to time to check in on leads.
“That’s probably the one I will always remember,” he said.
Like many police leaders across Washington state, Majetich also found it challenging to interpret the state’s new police accountability laws that went into effect summer 2021. There were a lot of questions of personal liability, and what reforms exactly the new laws were targeting.
Majetich said clarifications that came out of the most recent legislative session have been much needed.
“This last year was scary, and I’m happy we were able to clarify it,” he said.
Last August, his department was able to fully implement body and vehicle cameras as part of new state law requiring interviews with suspects in felony crimes or with juveniles to be recorded.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
