Lacey Police Department Commander Joe Upton retires after 33 years in law enforcement

The City of Lacey marked the end of an era as the man behind its near-perfect homicide clearance rate, evidence room standards and statewide reputation for detective work retired. 

Lacey Police Department Commander Joe Upton, who investigated more than 1,550 felony cases and served as vice chair of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Accreditation Committee since 2018, ended a 33-year career with the department.

The Lacey City Council honored Upton with a department commendation at a meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 16. 

"Over half our institutional knowledge is walking out the door today," said Chief Robert Almada of Upton.

Almada told the council the department restructured from two commanders to four lieutenants to absorb the workload Upton and another retiring commander once carried. 

Upton joined the department in March 1992 as a patrol officer after completing the Basic Law Enforcement Academy. He then transferred to the detective unit, where he developed fraud and forgery training for local banks and credit unions. 

The department promoted Upton to sergeant in January 2003, and he went on to launch the city's first Business Academy, a program he created, planned, advertised and hosted. 

Upton later became the department's first administrative sergeant and overhauled the evidence room. He moved the unit into a new facility, developed new policies and procedures for handling and packaging evidence, and created procedures still in use today. 

By November 2006, the department had promoted him to commander. From there, Upton built the current Lacey Police Department policy manual. 

Almada called him the state's go-to authority on evidence room accountability, noting Upton has mentored agencies statewide through accreditation and the Law Enforcement Management Assessment Program. 

Crisis response expansion 

After Washington voters passed Initiative 940 in 2018, Upton helped create the Capital Metro Independent Investigative Team, a multi-agency unit that investigates deadly uses of force by law enforcement agencies across the region. 

He also launched the department's mobile outreach team as an outgrowth of the community navigator program, and expanded the department's partnership with Olympia Health and Capital Services, embedding co-responders at the station and adding a designated crisis responder to the team. 

More recently, Upton helped establish a three-city proactive unit and executed interlocal agreements to get it operational. He also oversaw recruiting, hiring, training and professional standards. 

Almada said the department has only one unsolved homicide on its books, a clearance rate he credited to Upton's leadership. 

"I am losing my right arm by losing Joe," Almada said. "He is a tremendous asset to this community, and he's kind of one of the inside heroes." 

Mayor Andy Ryder echoed the sentiment, saying Upton helped shape the city's identity through his work. 

"His impact, not only to the City of Lacey, but really to the entire state of Washington, has been done sort of the Lacey way — behind the scenes, hard work, professionalism," Ryder said. 

Upton, visibly emotional, thanked his wife Diane and the city for the support throughout his career. 

"We're really one of the few cities in the state that has never, in the 33 years I've been here, pink slipped anybody," Upton said. "We've never laid anybody off. And that says a lot about the city and the financial stewardship that it has."