BEACHWOOD, Ohio — Rocky River’s former police chief, Kelly Stillman, is now in charge of the Beachwood Police Department.

An Ohio pension program mandated he retire in Rocky River in 2021, but he wasn’t ready to bow out of law enforcement just yet.

He calls leading the Beachwood Police Department an “opportunity of a lifetime.”

It’s never a bad idea to brush up on the basics.

“If you don’t use them, you lose them,” said Stillman during his weekly shooting practice.

Stillman has been the top cop in the east Cleveland suburb since September.

“A gift from God being able to get hired here in Beachwood,” he said. “I retired from Rocky River on Friday, Sept. 25, and started here Monday, Sept. 28.”

He was the police chief in Rocky River for a decade and worked in the department for 36 years.

“I had a great, great run in Rocky River. Great community, great police department,” he said.

Retirement was never an option, despite the rules.

Stillman joined an Ohio pension program called DROP that mandated retirement after a certain amount of time.

“I was in the Deferred Retirement Option Program and I got in, in 2012 in January and you can only stay for eight years. And my DROP date, as we call it, was Jan. 25 of 2021,” Stillman said.    

His work-around to stay in the game is what he calls the pinnacle of his career: leading the Beachwood Police Department.

"It’s a huge honor,” he said.

“All the stars were aligned, the moons were aligned, and everything fell into place,” Stillman said.

Sixty-three is the new 20-something, he said.

“I feel like I’m 25,” he said.

Stillman joined the Coast Guard right out of high school.

Afterward, he worked as a police officer in Cleveland Heights and then Cleveland.

Rocky River is his hometown.

“I’m doing what I was called to do and I love doing it,” he said.

The chief's office reflects his passions: 40 years of police work and career accomplishments, motorcycles, and his family.

It’s Stillman’s mission to personally know every employee and officer in the department.

“I tell a story, the first day I walked into my office was like going back to kindergarten and getting off the school bus with my lunch pail and being like, 'Hey does anyone want to be my friend,'” Stillman said.

About 100 people work in the department.

He makes daily rounds to see how the new hires are doing.

“I’m not the chief that likes to sit behind the desk. I like to be very active with the guys that I work with. You know, we’re all equal,” he said.

Driving around the city helps him learn the ins and outs and every street name.

“No better way is I just go out and I get lost in the community and try and find my way back,” Stillman said.

Stillman shows no sign of slowing down.

Pulling from his experience in Rocky River, he’s implementing some new policies in Beachwood.

So far, he’s opened up the on-site shooting range to officers and hopes to start a Citizen Police Academy.

His goal is to have every officer go through Crisis Intervention Training.

A plan is also in the works to build a brand new building for the police department.

“I got a lot of years on the job and a lot of miles on my boots, but I could go for a long time,” Stillman said.