LISBON, N.D. (KFGO) – Jeanette Persons is calling it quits. The Lisbon police chief, the state’s only female police chief, is retiring.
She joined the police department in 1997 and became chief in 2005. She says she was never treated differently because she was a woman and says it’s been a great ride.
Persons was 49 when she decided to become a law officer. Attending the police training academy in Bismarck, she was, on average, 25-years older than the other candidates in the class who affectionately called her “mom.”
Now 71, Persons says she always wanted to be a law officer, a goal she reached after receiving degrees in office business and management at Valley City State University and working for the Barnes County Sheriff’s Office before moving on to Lisbon.
Tim Jordan, the senior police officer in Lisbon who worked with Chief Persons for 12 years takes over as police chief Dec. 16. He says Persons has proven herself “time and time again” as an officer and there has never been any doubt about her abilities and she will be missed.
