Reading has a new police chief.<\/p>\n
City Council, in a special meeting Monday, unanimously confirmed Javier Ruiz as chief of the city\u2019s police department.<\/p>\n
Ruiz, a lifelong city resident and 25-year veteran of the department, had been serving as acting chief since September following the resignation of former Chief Elias Vazquez for personal reasons. Before that, Ruiz served as deputy chief.<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Moran formally appointed Ruiz. That appointment was approved by council in accordance with the city\u2019s Home Rule Charter.<\/p>\n
Council members praised Ruiz for his leadership, longevity and dedication to the community.<\/p>\n
One of his roles as deputy chief was serving as community liaison.<\/p>\n
Acting Reading Police Chief Javier Ruiz and Mayor Eddie Moran embrace while Chief Elias Vazquez applauds during a press conference in city council chambers on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n
\u201cI support Chief Ruiz 100% in this position,\u201d said Councilwoman Melissa Ventura. \u201cThe community has spoken, and I appreciate your commitment to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman Jaime Baez Jr. noted that Ruiz has twice stepped into leadership roles during times of transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe (department\u2019s) morale is up,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s because we have good leadership. And that\u2019s you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Vanessa Campos commended Ruiz for his connection to the city\u2019s diverse community.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour strengths are commendable,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re bilingual, you\u2019ve stayed with us this long, and the community identifies with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council President Donna Reed noted Ruiz\u2019s perseverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to be said for staying with the city,\u201d she said, congratulating the new chief. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen many councils, mayors and chiefs come and go, but you\u2019ve stayed the course.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading has a new police chief. City Council, in a special meeting Monday, unanimously confirmed Javier Ruiz as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11320,11322,990,11321,2005,2049,11323,8669,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-15090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-chief-elias-vazquez","tag-chief-ruiz","tag-city-council","tag-deputy-chief","tag-eddie-moran","tag-javier-ruiz","tag-leadership-roles","tag-police-chief","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}