Lansdale Lt. Ryan Devlin to serve as acting police chief

The outgoing head of the Lansdale Police Department has addressed his imminent departure, as the future of the department is coming into focus.

Council members voted ahead a motion Wednesday night designating current Lieutenant Ryan Devlin to take over as the department’s acting chief as of Nov. 1, upon the departure of Chief Mike Trail.

“Yesterday, I sent a letter to all of the elected officials, that I will be retiring effective November 1st, and it was a very difficult thing to do. I’ve been here 24 years. I love this community, raised my family here, but as we’ve spoken, it’s time for me to move on and take on additional challenges,” Trail said

“One of the things we did in 2018, when we took over — Christine, Ryan and I — is we set out to build a platform of sustainability and leadership transfer and succession planning. Ryan came onboard as lieutenant in 2018. He’s done a stellar job, and I think he is ready, and provided the proper vetting and what-not, he could be a great chief for Lansdale Borough,” Trail said.

Headed to Norristown

In mid-August Norristown’s borough council voted to hire Trail to be that department’s next police leader, starting Nov. 3, ending a search that began with the departure of Norristown’s prior chief earlier this year.

Trail has been a member of Lansdale’s PD since 2002, working his way up from patrolman, to detective, patrol supervisor, sergeant, then acting chief after the retirement of prior Chief Robert McDyre in summer 2017 before being named permanent chief in March 2018. The following month, Devlin was Trail’s first choice for promotion to lieutenant, a Lansdale native who joined the department in 1996, and has acted as a field training officer, D.A.R.E. officer, team leader on the North Penn Tactical Team, and on the department’s drug and DUI task forces. He was promoted to sergeant in 2011 and has since acted as the department’s accreditation officer as the PD secured that status in 2022.

“I happily and wholeheartedly recommend that he be appointed as the acting chief of Lansdale Borough, effective November 1st of 2025, and we move on from there,” Trail said.

As Trail spoke, the public safety committee, outgoing chief, and police Support Services Director Christine Schreiner applauded while Devlin took notes on his first committee meeting. Committee chairwoman Meg Currie Teoh said, “We are, speaking for myself and the borough, very sad to see (Trail) go, but I appreciate that you have created a strong plan to keep us moving forward.”

Councilman Andrew Carroll asked the outgoing chief, “assuming this gets approved (by council), is there any kind of a boot camp you can provide for Ryan in the coming week?”

Trail answered that’s part of the reason he doesn’t start in Norristown until November: “I wanted to make sure I had enough time to bring Ryan into the inner sphere,” before detailing how he, Devlin, Schreiner and police Lt. Adrienne Gori have started to prepare for the transition.

“Ryan, Adrienne and Christine have run the day-to-day operations of the PD, they do it great. But they don’t have a lot of experience in this setting, in the politics, in the different nature, the soft skills that you need to be a chief, and that’s a skill that has to be acquired and learned,” Trail said.

    Lansdale police Chief Mike Trail, Detective Joel Greco and Lieutenant Ryan Devlin worked the grill during a July 4 celebration in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Lansdale Police Department)
  

“There’s great command schools out there, and I’m sure Ryan will challenge himself to get that training, as he moves forward in his leadership journey, and — provided that you guys give him the opportunity — I’m sure he’ll do well,” Trail said.

Councilman Mike Yetter added another observation he’s seen via the town’s economic development committee: “Your foundation of a safe, walkable community, where people can walk around and patronize businesses, is a foundation that we need. And that starts with public safety — it is not the place to start cutting your budget,” he said.

Mayor Garry Herbert added one more key question.

“I assume you want this?” Herbert asked, and Devlin replied with a deadpan “Yes…thanks for clarifying that,” drawing laughs and grins from the rest of the committee. One unanimous vote later, Devlin received a round of applause, and a similar motion was also voted forward by the administration and finance committee for full council action later this month.

    Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert, left, asks a key question to Lieutenant Ryan Devlin, at right, as council’s public safety committee meeting discusses naming Devlin the department’s acting chief upon current Chief Mike Trail’s departure, on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025.
 By Dan Sokil | The Reporter   

Resident Bruce Schwartz, who has worked with Trail on countless town events as a member of borough nonprofit Discover Lansdale, added thanks to the chief for his support of those events.

“We are really, really gonna miss you,” Schwartz said.

The chief answered that it’s a group effort, and that Lansdale’s successes did not go unnoticed a few miles south.

“One of the reasons I was so successful in Norristown is that I just went down there and talked about what we did here. And it resonated. It’s what they need, it’s what they want,” he said.

Crime is down

The chief then said the borough’s crime statistics, listed in his annual reports to council, have consistently shown downward trends as police staffing has gone up, and asked council to keep that correlation in mind as they discuss staffing levels and the town’s 2026 budget.

“Be judicious. There’s always room to save money, but we went from a time where we had armed robberies in the park, to — we haven’t’ had a gunpoint robbery in a while, we haven’t had a homicide in a long time. And even when we do, they’re domestic related,” Trail said.

“Lansdale has become a very safe community, and that’s why everyone wants to come here and build here,” he said.

Herbert added that based on his calculations, the town has its “lowest crime rate in 30 years,” and Trail answered: “That’s not by accident,” before previewing a suggestion for the full group to consider once the new chief is in place

“When Ryan takes over, or whoever it’s going to be, one of the things I suggest is another staffing study in 2026, to see where we stand. And in addition to staffing, resource allocation — do we need so many detectives? Do we realign our detective division, because we don’t have a lot of (major) crimes, and put them into community engagement? Or traffic?” Trail said.

“Be judicious, and be good stewards. We’ve worked hard, and had your support. The community has been overwhelmingly supportive, and we appreciate it. I’m happy to be leaving here when I’m leaving, and very proud of the work we’ve done, but I know it’s been the men and women of the PD, not me.”

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