McMinnville Police Chief Retires After 9 Years

McMinnville Chief of Police Bryan Denton announced his retirement Tuesday night after nine years.

Denton’s final day will be December 31st after spending 40 years in law enforcement. Denton said he hopes to leave the city with enough time to fill his position.

“I wanted to make sure there was enough time to do that so we wouldn’t have to have an interim chief or whatever, we have succession plan within the department, I think they’ll look at that maybe for replacement,” Denton said. “It will be the city administrator’s decision on that but I have offered my insight on that, just in whatever way they would like.”

Denton said he would like to focus on getting used to retirement and spending time with his family before considering any part-time work. Denton said he’s been told he is the longest serving police chief in McMinnville’s history.

“This job consumes massive amounts of time, I was a police officer when my daughters were growing up and I feel like I missed out on some things there,” Denton said. “I have grandchildren now that I want to be able to spend more time with them.”

Denton said he has no regrets about spending two-thirds of his life in law enforcement. Touting his accomplishments during his time serving for McMinnville.

“We were the first agency in the state of Tennessee to maintain accreditation, it’s normally a three-year process, we did it in about 18 months,” Denton said. “On a personal level, I was able to go to the FBI National Academy.”

Another accomplishment listed by Denton is helping with moving the McMinnville Police Department downtown.