Police Chief Ready to Retire and ‘Look Into New Things in Life’ : Simi Valley: After 12 years at the department, Lindsey Paul Miller, who helped make the city one of nation’s safest, says he wants to travel and write.

Appointed 12 years ago to improve the troubled Simi Valley Police Department, Chief Lindsey Paul Miller announced Monday he will retire.

Miller, 55, said he is ready to pursue other interests after 32 years of police work--the first 20 spent with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m ready to look into newthings in life--nothing is settled,” Miller said Monday of his prospects. “I’ll be exploring my options for over the next several months . . . I’m satisfied with my progress in my career and simply want to do something new and different.”

Miller said he may travel through Colorado or Arizona on his burgundy 1986 Harley-Davidson, and he might do some writing. But he has few other specific plans, he said.

The city will conduct a nationwide search to replace Miller, whose retirement takes effect Feb. 11, said Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell. The job pays between $76,500 and $97,000 a year.

But while many credit Miller with making the department more professional and making Simi Valley one of the safest cities in the U.S., the police union president said the chief is leaving his department in “a state of internal disarray.”

“We welcome the news of his retirement,” said Sgt. Fred James, president of the Simi Valley Police Officers’ Assn.

“Paul Miller’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with or to know, and this announcement’s long overdue,” James said Monday. “There’s some things going on in this department that are creating internal dissension unnecessarily, and it’s basically because of a lack of leadership and direction.”

Miller replied, “Obviously, as the union president, he certainly has an agenda. I would hope he’d cooperatively work to resolve those issues as opposed to wanting to fight about it.”

Miller joined the department as it was being wracked by community allegations of brutality, misconduct and disorganization.

Hired as a deputy chief in 1981, he was appointed acting chief in June, 1982, after then-Chief Donald Rush resigned. The city named him chief four months later.

By 1985, the Ventura County grand jury was commending Miller for helping his department make “a dramatic turnaround” by firing problem officers and giving better training and leadership to the rest of the force.

Miller’s tenure also has introduced the department to new programs for drug education in the schools and gang suppression in the streets. And it comes to an end at a time when Simi Valley is ranked the fourth-safest city of its size in the U.S.--something for which he has refused to take any personal credit.

“He’s been an excellent chief,” said Capt. Jerry Boyce, who has not decided whether to apply for Miller’s job. “He gives you a project, expects you to get the job done and doesn’t look over your shoulder too much.”

Boyce credited Miller with bringing the anti-drug D.A.R.E. program to Simi Valley’s schools and with assigning an officer full-time to a federal narcotics task force that has netted the department nearly $6 million in assets-forfeiture money since 1984.

“I think he has certainly provided the leadership that was necessary to correct some of the problems that had been identified when he came into the agency,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Cmdr. William Wade, former head of police services for neighboring Thousand Oaks.

Wade worked alongside Miller to plan police presence last year at rallies held at the Simi Valley Courthouse by groups of white supremacists. “I saw him as providing leadership to his people, and he was a stabilizing influence at a time when they really needed that,” Wade said.

But Miller also is leaving at a time when one of his top lieutenants--Robert Klamser--is the subject of a massive internal affairs investigation into misconduct allegations.

And the police union charges that Miller has lacked the leadership lately that could keep conflicts from building inside the department.

When only two sergeants applied recently for promotion to a vacant lieutenant’s slot, officials began advertising the post outside the department.

“They said they wanted a better pool of applicants,” said James, the union president. “They’re testing for people from outside agencies. They basically said they don’t want to promote people from within.”

Miller responded angrily, “That is absolutely not true.” He said officials advertised outside the department because there was an obvious lack of interest.

“They’re welcome to apply, they are not excluded whatsoever,” he said. “I’d be happy if 15 sergeants applied from inside the police department.”

James also said that two investigative units have been bumping into each other on narcotics cases because management has failed to order the units’ leaders to resolve the wasteful duplication of duties.

That conflict, Miller replied, was resolved last week.

Miller said, “I want to make it clear my retirement’s got nothing to do with this.

“I don’t think it’s any different from any other organization,” he said. “There’s always two sides to every story.”

Miller’s career in police work began when he joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 1961 as a rookie deputy. He rose through the ranks taking a variety of positions, ranging from field sergeant and watch commander roles to administrative work writing speeches for top brass and building a career development program for officers.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in religion at UCLA in 1959 and a master’s degree in public communications at Pepperdine University in 1975.

Since his appointment as Simi Valley’s police chief, the city has grown considerably, and the department has swelled by 28 sworn positions to include 109 officers.

“I’m very proud of this Police Department, and I feel that as a result of everybody being willing to work together to get the job done,” Miller said. “We have an agency here that has done a very good job of taking care of its citizens. And I’m proud to be part of it.”