Placerville names new police chief after 3 month vacancy

The Placerville Police Department appointed a new police chief Friday.

Joseph Wren, a commander in the department, was selected to serve as the department’s chief of police in a City Council meeting earlier this week, according to a news release.

Wren had filled the position of interim chief after former chief James Ortega left his role as Placerville’s top cop in May.

Wren began his law enforcement career in 1996 after stints in the Marine Corps and the California Army National Guard, where he served as a non-commissioned officer and lead an infantry unit. He graduated from the police academy in Modesto, not far from where he grew up in Merced, and took his first policing job at the Sutter Creek Police Department.

Wren would later work at several law enforcement agencies in the Central Valley and Bay Area, including the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, Newark Police Department, Merced Police Department and Ceres Police Department.

In Ceres, Wren “distinguished himself as a K9 handler, receiving the lifesaving medal,” earned the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor, and was “named the Red Cross Hero of the Year in 2007 and again in 2013,” according to the release.

He also earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and an MBA, and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

He moved to the Placerville Police Department in 2016 to serve as one of its commanders.

Outside of his career in law enforcement, Wren enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, and trains in mixed martial arts and jiujitsu, the news release said.

Wren takes the position of chief nearly three months after Ortega left after he and the city manager “mutually agreed to a separation.”