Paiute tribe’s police chief to step down

The Las Vegas Paiute Tribe's police chief announced his retirement Thursday but said he is not ready to quit working yet.

Theodore Quasula, 57, said he plans to start an entirely new career.

"I'm going to work until I'm 110," he joked.

The former federal Indian Affairs official plans to help establish and manage a hospitality and culinary arts school in Las Vegas.

"After 35 years in law enforcement, I thought I'd try something else," Quasula said.

The management skills he acquired as an administrator at law enforcement agencies are transferable to any industry, he said.

"You got to respect everyone, employees especially," he said. "I think it's pretty basic, if you treat people like adults, they'll respond accordingly."

Quasula, who grew up without electricity or indoor plumbing on the Hualapai reservation near Seligman, Ariz., started his work as a lawman in Flagstaff, Ariz., in 1972.

He thought he would be a patrol officer on the graveyard shift for the rest of his life. But Quasula became a field investigator for the FBI in Phoenix.

A sabbatical in Washington, D.C., and a visit to Congress in 1989 changed his life. In 1990, he became the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Law Enforcement Office in Washington. Supervising a staff of 2,000, Quasula worked with Indian tribes all over the country and lobbied Congress for money and legislative authority for Indian affairs.

"It was a lot of headaches and a lot of good times, an awesome responsibility," he said.

He retired from the position in December 2000 and moved to Las Vegas to be near his family in Arizona. But Quasula tired of consulting work and became interested in working as head of the Paiute tribe's law enforcement agency.

He wanted to apply the administrative techniques he had been promoting at the federal level while supervising a department with a staff of 24.

"He's an outstanding administrator," Paiute Lt. Don Belcher said. "He knows police work well."

Quasula promoted community policing and tried to get rid of the "us versus them mentality" that sometimes surrounds police work, Belcher said.

Quasula helped residents get addresses on their homes, restored an old basketball facility and started several programs to benefit children, Belcher said.

Under his leadership, the department raised the qualifications required for its officers, secured grants to replace equipment and developed a strong working relationship with area law enforcement agencies.

"He took the position by popular demand, and he was a great contributor to it,' said Steve Martinez, special agent in charge of the FBI's Las Vegas field office.

"It been a good run as far as we're concerned, and we're sorry to see him go."

Contact reporter Beth Walton at bwalton@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0279.