Assistant Police Chief Laura Forbes is a twenty-seven year veteran of the Tempe Police Department in Tempe Arizona.  The Department has 330 sworn officers and 200 civilian employees who serve a residential population of 160,000.  Tempe is also home to Arizona State University which brings another 50,000 students and faculty to the city each semester.  Tempe is host to over 400 special events a year, most notably the annual Fiesta Bowl New Year’s Eve Block Party which attracts approximately 125,000 people to the Downtown area and has been billed as one of the top ten places to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the nation.

Chief Forbes has gained her police experience through a variety of assignments in Patrol, Field Training, Criminal Investigations, Selective Enforcement, Administration and several special details.  As a Lieutenant, she collaborated with ASU and AZPost to oversee development and delivery of a Leadership Development Program for the Arizona Regional Community Policing Institute.  In 1997, Chief Forbes attended Northwestern’s School of Police Staff and Command where she served as class president and was awarded the Kreml Leadership Award.  She was promoted to Assistant Chief in 2000 and recently completed a three-year assignment to the Investigation Division.  She is now providing oversight to the Patrol Division.

Chief Forbes actively participates on the Police Department’s Diversity Team and the City of Tempe’s formal mentoring program.  She is on the Board of Directors for the Community’s Tempe Leadership Program and is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Tempe.  She is also an adjunct faculty member for Mesa Community College, where she teaches in the Administration of Justice Program.  Chief Forbes has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Arizona State University.

Chief Forbes has been a member of NAWLEE since 1999 and has attended all the annual conferences since feeling the “magic” in Madison WI.  In 2003 she worked with other agencies in the “Valley of the Sun” to host our annual conference in Tempe.  That same year she was elected to the position of 1^st V.P. and served three years in that capacity.  In August 2006 Chief Forbes was elected to the position of NAWLEE President.