by Marissa Lorenz
The Kremmling community will welcome a new full-time officer to the Kremmling Police Department, after an offer was extended to and accepted by one of the three recent police chief finalists.
“We are excited to announce that Jesse Lisenby has accepted a conditional offer of employment and will be joining the Kremmling Police Department team by the beginning of December,” says Kremmling Police Chief Hiram Rivera.
“Officer Lisenby brings with him six years of tactical patrol and enforcement experience as well as his knowledge, training, and experience as a US Veteran. He will add diversity and experience to the KPD team. This addition will enhance our serviceability to the town of Kremmling and Grand County.”
Lisenby comes to Kremmling from the Fort Worth Police Department where he has served since July 2019. His experience
also includes over five years with the Beaumont Police Department in Beaumont, Texas, and five years in the Army Special Forces. He holds bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice and agricultural business and a master’s degree in criminal justice leadership and management.
When discussing his experience, Lisenby describes working in a challenging area of Beaumont, where residents were lower income and the crime rate was high. “What I discovered was the people there were mostly honest and trying to get by, just like everybody else.
“I worked during Hurricane Harvey and saw the community come together to rebuild and move on from that disaster. We weathered some of the fall-out from quite a few of the public issues that divided many of the citizens and police, and I saw that community come together in a positive way,” he goes on to explain.
“What I learned and came to believe was that there is no ‘us and them.’ The police are not set out against any one person or particular group, and the citizens are not against the police (much like the media would have people believe). I understand there are places where this is not the case, but it isn’t the norm. Most Americans (police included) want to go about their lives in a peaceful manner.
Police are there to ensure this is the case. My belief is that officers that are part of a community and try to understand the hardships of that community are much more effective at being able to assist,” Lisenby says of his own policing philosophy.
“Community Policing is a model that has been around for decades, and some agencies do a great job of making that model work. I was fortunate enough to work for the Fort Worth Police Department for a while to see how a very large agency attempts to work with it’s citizens. For me, it is just a bit too big. I prefer a little less concrete. I hope to be a part of the Kremmling Police Department and help make it an agency that is truly in tune with what is wanted and needed in this community. In return, I’ll get to live in a place where I truly feel at home.”
And indeed, Lisenby and his wife Jennifer, a registered nurse, first discovered Kremmling as a vacation destination.
“I am an avid fly fisherman, which is tough to do in North Texas,” he says. “I have taken several road trips to fly fish in the Rockies. I visited the Kremmling area several times in those travels, and I fell in love with the Colorado River. I brought my wife on one of those trips – she fishes too.
“While we were staying in the Hotel Eastin and having a meal at the Moose Café, we encountered several of the townspeople and realized they were the kind of folks we like to be around. My wife pulled out her phone and said ‘I wonder if they have police here.’ We saw the job listing, and I applied as soon as we got back home.
I am cursed with too many hobbies, but Kremmling offers an outlet for nearly all of them just minutes away. Aside from fly fishing, I enjoy hunting and riding my dirt bike. Just being outside and having the space to explore is something that is important to Jenn and me.”
Jenn, who currently works in the emergency department of a level 1 trauma center in Fort Worth, is originally from Georgia. She will follow her husband to Kremmling sometime in December, at which time she will join the staff of Middle Park Health.
The Lisenby’s have a border collie mix named Sadie and “a growing list of relatives who are lining up to come visit and/or stay with us for a while.”
“In closing,” summarizes Lisenby, “what my wife and I hope to bring to this community is a couple of people who enjoy what we do. We want to work to be part of this community. We like helping people, and we feel both of our occupations are truly a calling. The citizens of Kremmling have always been very welcoming to us, and we want to be a part of that.”
“We are very excited to have an experienced police officer join our team,” says Kremmling Town Manager Dan Stoltman. “He will
be coming in with his provisional Colorado POST certification so he can hit the ground running.”
Chief Rivera reiterates, “We are fortunate to be able to fill the KPD ranks with qualified and experienced Peace Officers such as Officer Lisenby. We will be looking to add one more experienced/qualified officer to the KPD team in 2021.”
