LIBERTY — Looking back at the past decade, Ray Buhala admitted that he initially never wanted to become the police chief, but the desire was something that he grew into with time.

“It’s one of those things that just kind of evolved on its own; it was kind of organic how it happened. I started here as a dispatcher,” Buhala said. “At that time, I worked with UPS and I did this part time, and it just got in my blood, and just working my way up the ranks seemed like the next natural progression.”

Buhala was sworn in Friday as the township’s newest police chief, stepping into a role he had already been filling for the past six months as the department’s acting chief, following the acceptance of former police Chief Toby Meloro’s retirement April 14.

Buhala expressed his appreciation to the residents, former and current police officers and township officials in attendance, noting that he and Michael Shuster, who was sworn in as captain moments before him, have been the “leadership” since Meloro took over in 2018.

“He empowered us to do a lot of the administrative stuff that we wouldn’t otherwise be prepared for,” Buhala said. “We’re looking forward to building upon the training program that we started; we’re also continuing to look into new ways to fund our agency and give our officers the best opportunity out there to succeed.”

And that leadership is what officials such as trustee Arnie Clebone have seen in Buhala, noting that it’ll be an exciting year and the township was fortunate to have both Shuster and Buhala extend their time with the department.

“Both of these gentlemen have been with the force for a long time — I believe Buhala’s been here since 2000 now,” Clebone said. “Since Greg (Cizmar) and I got in, he’s been the captain, and I think he was captaining before that, and he’s taken over a lot of responsibilities.”

Clebone said Buhala is “ready and able,” calling him intelligent, aggressive and “top notch” as far as understanding the department’s budget.

“I can’t believe we would have found anybody better — I was very, very happy — Greg and I were both very happy with it,” Clebone said.

Clebone said officials already have seen Shuster and Buhala in action with several initiatives, such as removing cars from the streets of neighborhoods to slowing down traffic and giving citations as needed.

“We’ve had people complaining about speeding in the neighborhoods — he (Buhala) got that down,” Clebone said. “And he was out there. Schools, he’s been working very closely with the schools; we have resource officers in the schools now, and we’re even enhancing that further.”

“And he’s made some deals with the school to get compensated, and that’s been very effective,” Clebone added.

Cizmar, recalling Buhala’s time as a dispatcher from 2001 to 2006 and later a police dog handler from 2009 to 2016, said moving both Buhala and Shuster into their new positions keeps a stable structure for the department.

“There were a lot of retired officers who came here to see this, and that shows a big thing to me, when you got retired officers coming out and congratulating them,” Cizmar said. “We’ve had a good group — a lot have retired since I’ve been here (since) 2018, and now we’ve got another good group.”

Buhala said he looks forward to the upcoming challenges ahead, such as finding new ways of funding the department.

“I consider myself more of a servant leader; titles and position don’t really equate to the way things should be. I would rather work alongside my men and women and bring them up,” Buhala said. “And that’s one thing that you’ll see different with me is I’ll be in a patrol car helping out. I’ll be out seeing the public.”