After seven and a half years at the helm of the Selma Police Department, chief William Riley is stepping down.

Riley sent a memo to all police department personnel Friday announcing his resignation.

“Your work speaks for yourself, and that is something my grandma always told me,” Riley said. “My work has spoken for myself here, and I’m proud to have had the opportunity to work with the men and women at the Selma Police Department.”

Riley was appointed Selma police chief in February 2008 by former Mayor James Perkins.

“It was wonderful. It’s just been great,” Riley said of his time in Selma.

According to his email, Riley has accepted a position as police chief in Inkster, Mich., a city that is a little bigger than Selma and is right outside of Detroit.

Riley said the job wasn’t something he was looking for but it just fell into his lap.

“I got contacted about two months ago out of the blue. Someone called in reference to some policing questions,” Riley said. “It was an executive research company that called, and I talked to them about some things we’re doing here because we are a town of about the same size.”

Riley said he expects his last day in the office to be Aug. 3 and his last day with the police department to be around Aug. 10.

“I came to Selma in 2008, and Selma was similar to [Inkster],” Riley said. “They were looking for an outside chief to come in, someone that was not going to be influenced by politics that could come in and revamp the organization and turn it around. I think that is what drew them to me.”

When Riley came to Selma he said he brought with him ideas that were “outside the box.:

“In life you always have ups and downs, but I can tell you right now, I have had nothing but 10,000 and one more ups than anything down because nothing really gets me down because I am all about business,” Riley said.

One of the things Riley said he will never forget is looking out over the sea of people that came to Selma in March for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

“To have that with over God knows more than 100,000 some odd people during that time, and we only had one minor incident that was disorderly conduct. And to be able to reach out to other law enforcement agencies, federal, state and local,” Riley said. “To me, that was phenomenal. That is definitely something I will never forget.”

Riley said the Selma Police Department has seen an about face since he took over, whether it was the addition of new technology to the department or lowering the crime rate.

“We are pretty much a totally different police department. We’re just totally different,” Riley said.

“When I walked in the door in March of 2008, I had a disk that I brought from Newport News, Va. with all of our policies and things that we did, and when I put that disk in one of our computers here, the thing locked up. I called the IT person and he said chief, it can’t handle that. I looked at him and I said it’s a shame.”

Riley said the department has since seen a much noticeable change in their technology that has allowed them to do a much better job.

With the passing of the torch, Riley said he hopes to see his officers do a good job in Selma.

“I want my people to continue to work hard and to continue to want to go to the next level,” Riley said. “I’ve always wanted them to continue to get better at their job. I never wanted anyone to be happy just being a patrolman. I always wanted them to continue to go forward.”

Riley said his biggest regret was not getting better pay for his officers.

“Over the years I have been impressed by the great job that all of you have been doing,” Riley said in his email to staff. “My only regret is that I could not get all of you a pay raise, but all of you know I tried.”

Efforts to reach Mayor George Evans for comment Friday evening were unsuccessful.