After nearly six months on paid administrative leave, former Deputy Chief Jim Jolliffe has been demoted due to performance issues and has returned to work at the Bellevue Police Department.

The department opened an independent external investigation into issues with his performance as deputy chief in November. Though Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett declined to disclose the issues investigated, due to the possible appeals process, he told the Reporter that he has confidence in Jolliffe’s law enforcement abilities.

“All I can say is that these issues do not involve matters of public trust,” Mylett said. “It was not about his ability to be a law enforcement professional, but performance-based issues that I observed over the last 12 months.”

Mylett said that he began noticing the issues in Jolliffe’s performance as deputy chief shortly after he took the reins as chief in April 2015. The chief then hired an outside law firm to conduct the investigation into Jolliffe — who was then second-in-command — to avoid conflicts of interest and .

The investigation concluded earlier this month. Jolliffe has been demoted to a Bellevue Police captain and has been moved to the patrol division.

Prior to Mylett’s tenure, a handful of incidents involving long-time police officers brought negative attention to the department.

A veteran officer was fired in early 2014 after letting a fellow officer off the hook during a 2013 drunken-driving incident. He was reinstated later that year.

Also in 2014, a member of the bomb squad with 22 years of police experience was removed from his post after he was found to have driven a bomb disposal unit after consuming alcohol, and a lieutenant with 19 years of experience was fired for allegedly falsifying worker’s compensation documents and then lying about it.

Two officers resigned last year before internal investigations could be conducted into allegations of defamation and improper use of a police vehicle.

After the latter incident, mere weeks before Jolliffe was put on administrative leave, Mylett told the Reporter that no one in his department condoned the poor actions of Bellevue officers and that he was committed to responding swiftly and holding people responsible for their actions.

The many officer missteps and the resulting public perception problem was a hot topic of questioning during the search for a new chief — a position for which Jolliffe was a finalist.

“We have this reservoir of good will with the public, and we want to keep that full,” Jolliffe said during a press conference concerning the 2014 drunk driving-related firing and resignation. “So when a fire starts, we have the water to put that out.”

Jolliffe had been deputy chief since 2010. He has ten days to appeal the decision or not.