‘Showing progress’: Veteran officer will be Prairie Village’s first Black police chief
Maj. Byron Roberson, a longtime officer in Prairie Village, will become the city’s first Black police chief when he is sworn in Jan. 4.
Roberson, who started serving Prairie Village and Mission Hills as an officer in 1995, works as deputy chief under Chief Tim Schwartzkopf, who plans to retire early next year after 27 years with the force.
In an interview, Roberson said he has been told he will also be the first Black chief of any Johnson County city. His appointment, he said, will show other people of color that rising to the top position “is obtainable.”
“It’s showing progress,” Roberson said Wednesday, adding that police work has historically been somewhat “closed off” to members of minority communities because of their lack of positive experiences with law enforcement. “There has to be a start somewhere.”
The incoming chief described policing as his calling. Making his community safer, he said, is “what it’s all about.”
“That’s why I’m a police officer, and still am,” Roberson said.
His experience ranges from working as an undercover narcotics detective, a field training officer, a patrol supervisor and more recently, as captain over the patrol division. He has been deputy chief since April 2019.
Roberson said he aims to diversify his staff, which is made up of 47 sworn officers, and enhance its technology. He also said he would like to explore implementing a K-9 unit and a drone program to map crashes or crime scenes.
In a statement, Mayor Eric Mikkelson said Schwartzkopf, who worked as chief for more than five years, will become an assistant city administrator, where he will continue to provide residents with his “formidable work ethic, integrity and skills.”
Mikkelson called Roberson’s credentials “impressive.”
Roberson, who was born in Kansas City and went to high school in Grandview, holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Jackson State University in Mississippi and a master’s degree in administration of justice from the University of Central Missouri.
He is also an adjunct professor in criminal justice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
“All those who know and have worked with Byron are confident that the safety of Prairie Village will be in great hands,” the mayor said. “It will be an honor for me to appoint and entrust such a high caliber person with the leadership of our highly respected police department.”
City Administrator Wes Jordan, who previously served as police chief, said Roberson has an outstanding resume. He called it important for residents to have faith that police leadership is going about its business for the right reasons, especially during heightened calls nationally for social justice.
“Everything he does and what he’s about, it’s not about himself,” Jordan said. “It’s about, ‘How does this impact our community?’”
