Reno Police Chief Kathryn Nance is speaking for the first time since detectives arrested former Deputy Chief Thomas Robinson.
"We were all shocked," Nance said.
As we've reported, Robinson is accused of trying to pay a 17-year-old girl for sex, who turned out to be an undercover detective.
"It's very frustrating that one person can have that impact, but I'm not frustrated with the community for having that emotion," Nance said. "I'm frustrated with him for the choices that he made that brought that to us."
Nance says she and Robinson only worked together for about eight months. During that time, she says she did not suspect anything like this.
"I had no inkling or thought that he would do something like this," the RPD Chief said. "The solicitation of an underage minor, that was never in my thought."
Chief Nance continued, "It's hard because it does make you rethink a lot and wonder if you missed something, and if you missed an opportunity to prevent that type of predatory behavior."
Robinson primarily worked under former Police Chief Jason Soto, whom Nance took over for when he retired. Nance says that she and Soto have not talked about the situation.
Nance understands there is some trust that needs to be earned back from parts of the community.
"I completely understand how when things happen in any profession, if somebody is in a position of trust, it can derail that," she said. "And I would ask you to just give us another chance."
"We are not going to tolerate this behavior from somebody who either is a current member of the department or is a former member of the department," she said.
The Reno Police Chief says if there are victims in the community to please let police know.
"We're going to hold each other accountable, and we're not going to let things go," she said. "So, if somebody has been victimized by him, I hope they will be willing to come forward."
On Monday, we looked into the probable cause documents for Robinson's arrest. One of the things that jumped out was his familiarity with using terms and phrases common in the commercial sex trade.
"Reading those, the text messages, it was shocking to me, because I've done police work for a long time," Nance said. "I've seen operations like this. I've been involved in operations like this. It was very common lingo, and that's bothersome that somebody that we had trust in was participating in that type of activity."
Robinson is due back in court for an arraignment next Monday.
