After 29 or so years I am leaving my law enforcement career.
Its flown by...........
I remember my first day of the police academy. We all had new haircuts, new uniforms on and were quickly introduced to this thing called 'burpees" (I was hoping he said slurpees), thank you Ron Graham. We ran, we studied, we ran some more, we shot firearms and learned how to use this funny looking thing called a PR-24. Good times had by all....well most.
I remember working the cold foggy streets of Los Banos in the early 90's. It seemed like I always had a trainee in the car then....Wayne, Nathan, the other Wayne, Noah, Sheldon, Jeff, the other Jeff, Rudy, Brent....the list goes on and on..just a ton of intrepid individuals that wanted to wear a shield (or a star) and help people for a living. Good folks for sure.
I remember working in investigations in Los Banos. I remember my partner who shall
not remain nameless - Sheldon, and I having just a ball every single day. This cat ate more tacos than I did. We use to try to figure out ways to do follow up investigations out of town....it was like a competition. Sheldon did in fact win. He went to Los Angeles one morning in search of...get this....a load of stolen cheese. He actually called me and had me write the search warrant for him for this queso caper and have a superior court judge sign it and....then.....fax it to him.
I later promoted to the rank of sergeant under Chief Mike Hughes. I had some amazing patrol teams as a patrol sergeant at Los Banos PD. There was a rumor or legend if will, that I picked my patrol team members by golf handicap.........I can confirm. Yep! that is exactly what I did and we did WIN a few golf tournament and I don't even care....
As a young police officer, I learned a lot working for Los Banos PD. Had great co-workers and great bosses. I would not be who I am today without their patience, their kindness and their friendship.
Redwood City PD was also a great experience. Lifelong friendships for me were gained by being employed at RWCPD. Had so much fun. Had the honor of working for legendary if I am being completely honest, patrol sergeants. These men and women were top notch, all the way around.
I learned the value of community policing, engaging with the public and just being a completely thorough and well rounded police officer from my time at Redwood City PD. My chief was Carlos Bolanos, now Sheriff Bolanos.
In between there somewhere, I worked for Hollister PD at the 1997 and 1998 rally's. I was one of those "contract" officers from out of town. I was familiar with the the town and some of the folks that worked at HPD. So, when my 104 mile commute (one way) from Los Banos to Redwood City became frankly totally unbearable, I called HPD to see if they were hiring. They were, I was hired a short time later in 2003.
My first impressions if Hollister were really good. Reminded me of Hometown USA, heck it still does. Everyone was so nice, so kind and really cared about each other.
I began working and began to really understand the town. Hollister had the moratorium then and serious financial issues cropped up. The police department had to eliminate four police officer positions from its books around this time (there were fortunately four openings at the time). We had to tighten up the schedule, eliminate an entire shift and work longer hours.
I moved to Hollister with my wife, Liz (a Hollister native) a little while later. It was great for my daughter to experience having relatives live next door (as I had as a child) and go to area schools like her mother and family had.
A few years later Chief Miller promoted me to police sergeant again. Had some really amazing teams on patrol. One of my last teams was Officer Eric Olson, Officer Don Pershall and Officer Ray Celano. All of these men have promoted since then. Its Lt. Eric Olson, Sgt Pershall and Sgt Celano now.
I was promoted to the rank of Captain by Chief Miller in December of 2010. I was assigned the
budget, animal control and administration. My counterpart, Captain Reynoso was in-charge of operations. We worked well together and still do.
After Chief Miller retired I was promoted to Acting Chief of Police in April of 2012. This roll I would share with Captain Reynoso that year. On July 2, 2013 I was promoted to Chief of Police for the City of Hollister. Two days later, we had our first Motorcycle Rally after about a five year hiatus.
There have been many ups and downs, mostly ups during my time as Chief of Police in Hollister. I remember having this idea about going on-line and talking/listening to folks. I figured that since we had a lot of commuters and social media was becoming very popular, I could use this new tool to engage with the people we served in conjunction with doing the public events, neighborhood watch meetings, etc. People in my industry thought I was crazy. Thought I would catch a lot of criticism.
Well I did catch a lot of criticism. There was some mistrust. There was misinformation out there. However people began talking to me and I began talking to them. We found a lot of commonalities. We learned we had the same hopes, same fears and shopped in the same stores.
They learned that I did not concern myself with who they prayed too, who they fell in love with, where they were from, how much money they made and what they did for a living. They learned that I cared for them
regardless of all that and that I had a servants heart.
This is what it has always been about for me, my whole career, compassionate, honest and inspired service to others. I think you all deserve that in your community leaders.
In closing, I plan on keeping busy volunteering and doing things in this community. Let me know if you need help.
Thank you all for everything
Chief
