Galeoto leaving public safety

Phil Galeoto has resigned as director of the Department of Public Safety effective the end of this month.

"I'm re-retiring," said Galeoto, appointed by Gov. Jim Gibbons a year ago. "Beyond that, I'm not going to say anything."

Galeoto sent an email to his employees this week saying he wanted to spend more time with his family and enjoy retirement.

"The Department of Public Safety has made great strides in the past several years and that success has been the result of all of your efforts," he told the department's workers.

"It's really time for me," he said Tuesday. "I'm about to turn 61 in a couple of days. I've been involved in policing one way or another since 1974 " doing it, managing it or teaching it. It's time for me to go spend some time with my family and do the retirement thing."

Galeoto spent most of his career with the Reno Police Department. But he left that agency several years ago, turning up as an instructor in two different middle eastern countries.

After acting as an instructor for police in Jordan, he took a job attempting to teach police procedures to the Baghdad police before returning to Northern Nevada where Gibbons tapped him to head Public Safety.

Galeoto's resignation is the second in the Gibbons administration this week. Donna Rise resigned as head of the Agriculture Department.