PORT ANGELES — Rod Charles feels more useful patrolling the road than sitting behind the desk.

But that’s just one of the changes he’s taking on as the new police chief of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.

“I’d rather be out dealing with people, talking with people,” Charles said Wednesday.

“But somebody had to run the department. That’s why I chose to run it.”

Charles, who grew up in Port Angeles and is a member of the tribe, is more than a month into the new post, replacing former Chief Mike Lasnier.

Lasnier left in September after five years as chief to head the Suquamish tribal police department in Kitsap County.

“It was on good terms,” Charles said of Lasnier’s departure. “We didn’t want him to leave; tried to keep him here as best we could.”

Technology and training

Charles, who was a sergeant under Lasnier, is continuing to bring more technology and training opportunities to the department, work started by former Chief Rob DeGroot and continued by Lasnier.

He is only the second tribal member to lead the police department.

Phil Charles Jr., who now sits on the tribal council, was the chief in the 1970s when he hooked Rod Charles on law enforcement.

Charles, 47, was in high school when he started doing ride-alongs with the department, he said.

Charles later earned his associate’s degree from Skagit Valley Community College and moved back home in 1982 to skipper commercial fishing boats. He lives with his wife, Michele, and four sons.

He returned to law enforcement in 1993, starting at the Clallam County reserve academy the same day he interviewed for the job, he said. There, he trained side-by-side with some current members of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department.