Trinidad police chief Tracey Roles resigning after seven months on the job

Trinidad’s police leadership is changing again just seven months after Chief Tracey Roles was hired, a move that puts the city’s policing chain of command, emergency communications role and public-safety priorities back in focus. The City of Trinidad announced Wednesday, May 13, that Roles is resigning for family reasons.

The departure matters well beyond City Hall. The Trinidad Police Department is the city’s primary public-safety agency and a regional dispatch hub, with 23 sworn officers, seven dispatchers, two code enforcement officers and four civilian employees. Its officers handle about 15,000 calls for service each year, while the Trinidad Communications Center answers all 911 calls and non-emergency calls in Las Animas County and dispatches more than 22,000 calls for service to 16 different agencies.

That makes the chief’s seat one of the most consequential positions in local government. Trinidad’s city website says the police chief is a permanent member of the Trinidad E-911 Authority Board, so any vacancy can ripple into broader emergency-communications oversight as well as day-to-day policing inside the city limits. For residents, businesses and visitors, the question now is how smoothly the department can hold its course while the city determines the next step.

Roles had been brought in after an extensive search to lead the department, making his resignation after about seven months a short tenure for a post that carries wide operational responsibility. Even without a disciplinary issue attached to the announcement, the timing creates practical questions about continuity, staffing stability and whether any ongoing initiatives at the department will slow down during the transition.

The change also lands in a department with deep roots in Trinidad’s civic history. The Trinidad Police Department was established in 1876, moved into the first city building on Commercial Street when it opened in 1888, and later moved into the Las Animas County Courthouse when that building was completed in 1912. More than a century later, the department remains one of the city’s most visible institutions, and Trinidad now has to manage another leadership handoff without losing momentum on public safety.