New Dixon deputy police chief sworn in, one officer promoted to sergeant

Two Dixon police officers were sworn into their new roles at Monday’s Dixon City Council meeting as deputy chief and patrol sergeant.

Aaron Simonton, a Dixon officer for over 16 years, was selected to serve as deputy chief and Ed Deets, who began his career in Sterling before starting at Dixon about 9 years ago, was promoted to sergeant. The promotions were brought on by former Deputy Chief Matt Richards’ retirement on July 31 after serving over 27 years at the department, Dixon Police Chief Ryan Bivins told Shaw Local.

Bivins, who was sworn in as chief in June, said that he and Simonton have worked together for a long time and both went through the selection process for chief earlier this summer.

To select a new deputy chief, Bivins held a similar process at the department, but on a much smaller scale. Officers interested in the role completed a short project about their goals for the department and had an interview, Bivins said.

Simonton has served “in about every capacity” at the department, including patrol officer, detective, patrol sergeant, detective sergeant and tactical response team leader. He’s also “been instrumental in several department programs and community initiatives”, such as the crisis intervention program, Bivins said.

Selecting Simonton as deputy chief “was an obvious choice” because the two share a lot of the same goals and vision for the future of the department, Bivins said.

Bivins also noted “his forward thinking and reputation within the department and the community” as reasons for the selection.

The promotion of Simonton then led to the promotion of Deets, who for the last several years has really been “the core of our investigations” and acting in a sort of “senior detective” capacity, Bivins said.

Specifically, Bivins said, Deets is the department’s “resident expert on technology.”

Deets does a lot of work on child sex crimes, which is “not a fun job,” but “he does great” work and has been the “core of our efforts to stop internet crimes against children,” Bivins said.