New Brewster Police Chief brings career full circle

BREWSTER – With a decision that brought his law enforcement career full circle, Marcos Ruiz accepted the post as the city’s new police chief last September, bringing him back to the place where his profession began.

“I first got into law enforcement in 1993 as a student at Brewster High School,” said Ruiz. “I joined the Brewster Police Department Explorer Program where I job-shadowed on-duty officers on their shifts.”

After that first taste of law enforcement piqued his interest, Ruiz joined the U.S. Army in 1994 and served four years in Germany that included deployment to Bosnia during the Balkan War. Upon returning to the county following his discharge, Ruiz signed on as a corrections officer for the Okanogan County jail and joined the Brewster Police Department reserves program.

“I applied for a position as a police officer with the Brewster Police Department and was hired full-time in 2000,” Ruiz said.

For the next 15 years as a patrol officer Ruiz held many positions in the Brewster Police Department. He served as a field training officer (FTO), Taser instructor, gang investigator, undercover narcotics detective, Explorer Program coordinator, first line supervisor, and special response team (SRT) member. During those years Ruiz recalled a few of many memorable incidents.

“I stopped a school shooting from happening through investigation, confession, and arrest,” Ruiz said.

On another occasion Ruiz arrested a suspect in an attempted homicide after locating him in California, flying there and returning the fugitive back to Washington to face charges. Ruiz seized several large quantities of illegal narcotics and assisted the Omak Police Department  with solving a shooting during the Omak Stampede.  

Ruiz joined the Omak Police Department in 2014 and after two years as a patrol officer was promoted to detective. Omak providedits own share of memorable incidents including many violent crimes.

“My first major investigation as Detective was a double homicide and the same year I was involved with another violent homicide,” said Ruiz. “In 2018 I investigated the homicide of a male subject who was shot with a firearm.  I am lucky to have the luxury to say in all those cases arrests were made.”

These and other cases helped Ruiz win Officer of the Year honors by a vote of his peers in both 2017 and 2018.

Returning to the Brewster Police Department as its new chief, Ruiz said he has many ideas about running the department based on what he had learned over the past 20 years in law enforcement.

“The things I have seen work and not work come from past chiefs and supervisors I have worked under,” said Ruiz. “I also have many ideas from citizens.  Lots of citizens I have spoken with over two decades voiced their opinions and ideas to me, and I plan on implementing some of those ideas from within and outside of law enforcement.”

Ruiz said he also plans to implement leadership styles he learned while in the military.    

“Those styles are very successful,” said Ruiz. “I subscribe to the servant leadership philosophy and consider it my duty and honor to serve and protect the people of Brewster.”

The department was short-handed when Ruiz came aboard, but the manpower issue has improved.

“I have been allowed to hire another officer,” said Ruiz. “There is a recruit in the academy now (who) will graduate in December adding even more officers to serve the residents of Brewster during more hours of the day and night.”

Ruiz said his is a story of a small-town boy who left to see the world and return home 20 years later to become the police chief of the community where he was raised.