Racism Exists

With a title like “Racism Exists” you would think I would have some earth shattering statement. I don’t. My thoughts and emotions are a bit raw with the events of this week. I love people but I hate what people are doing to each other. We need to be better humans…..

I am sitting in my big comfortable chair watching what you are all watching on television. Many of us are on a couch, in a place of safety and comfort. We are stirring our tea occasionally, taking sips from the mug. We have worries and things of concern but for the most part, we will get thru it and figure out a way to find ourselves back in our comfy chair watching television again tomorrow.

We don’t have to worry, for the most part, about being stopped by law enforcement for whatever reason, detained and questioned.

We don’t have to worry about getting “the look” when walking into a place of business. You know “the look” the one where you’re probably there to rob the place because of the way you’re dressed and the way you look.

We don’t have to worry about a job interview and getting a litany of questions about your abilities, qualifications and education over and over again, even though its clearly all in your resume’ and supporting documents.

Your neighborhood school had all of the things it should have, new equipment, great teachers and a great support system top down. You don’t have to worry about going to school with over-crowded classrooms, sharing of text books, sub-standard support systems and metal detectors at the entrances.

We don’t have to worry about where our next meal comes from, if the lights are going to be on, if the water is going to be shut off and if there is gas in our vehicle to go to work.

We don’t have to worry about a lot.

Many people have to worry, many of your fellow residents do and even many of your friends do.

There are racists.

There racists of every color in the spectrum of a rainbow.

There are people that look down on others based on their skin color, religion, social status, checkbook, the way they look, where the live, where they work and whom they fell in love with.

These are facts.

I will never pretend to have the answers. I simply only know my response from my perspective. So what I am about to say is from what I see, know and have experience with. That’s it.

But I do listen.

You should too.

Listening to others thoughts, feelings and perspective is an important skill. Hone it, practice it and then use what you’ve learned from others, combined with your own thoughts and apply it to help make the world a better place.

“Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together.”

Eugene Ionesco 

In my TEDx Talk - Link here. I talked about love for my fellow man and service above self. Love guides me. Love teaches me humility. Love brings light into darkness. I don’t think I talked about any earth-shattering concepts. I kept it simple. My themes where love and service.

Love and service is still what drives me.

I am not suggesting we are a complete train wreck. We are not. But if one piece of our system of governing is out place, like a random lego on the ground, the system needs a thorough overhaul to find out what happened and get the system working in a way that best serves the people its set to protect.

We cannot fix the justice system, society or any other organization or services without first acknowledging the problems and inequities. We must drill down to the causation across the board.

Quick story – Everyone who reads my stuff and knows me, knows I am big rodeo fan. My family and I have been involved in rodeo for years. We love it.

Rodeo is a great sport as an example of equality. Yes I said that. It’s not a bunch of rednecks drinking beers, running around on horses or riding bulls for the sheer sport of it (ok to be fair there is a little bit of that). Rodeo is about the connection of horse and rider. Rodeo athlete vs animal rodeo athletes. Nobody cares in the least bit, if your gay, what god you pray to, what the color of your skin is, If you have a million bucks or 10 cents, what you drive or where you are from. None of that is a factor, at all. We are all there for the love of our animals and the sport. We take care of our animals like they are family. We take care of each other like they are family. We often speak in terms like “our rodeo family”. We support each other, we care about each other. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But I digress.

This is going to take work. Some sweat. Some tears. Some big changes in the way we operate our government and the way we see and treat people. We need to open our eyes to the world around us. We need to listen more and act on that. We need to be doers.

We must eliminate racism by replacing it with understanding; acceptance, equality and well…more love for our fellowman.

I was just thinking does this make me a liberal or a conservative? Oh Dave how dare you enter into the political fray! I make this statement because often times we draw political lines when in reality we should reject some those strict definitions and embrace the ideals that best serve our society, mankind and our hearts. I don’t know the answer on my own politics. I would suggest though, it makes me a human who truly loves people. I am completely fine with that.

I am willing to do what I can to help our country and world. Are you?

Where Are The Good Police Officers?

I often talk about my law enforcement career and the things I've experienced over the years. Some folks find it interesting, some do not. It just feels good to talk about it from my perspective. The emotions I felt, the things I saw, the view of the best show on earth (cops call law enforcement careers that) and the things I experienced. I try not to filter too much. I want you to have the raw emotion, the feelings and set the scenes properly from what I remember. 

  

Today I thought, I want to talk about the things we see on the nightly news, in our newspapers and on social media. I've talked in the past about the theory I have I've coined the “social media effect”. It’s a theory I have were a given situation or incident is played over and over from different viewpoints and opinions on social media. This magnifies the occurrence and often skews the facts of what happened. 

But what I decided I am talking about  isn’t any of that. I want to talk about George Floyd.

George Floyd

“George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man, died after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee on Monday, in an episode that was recorded on video and that sparked large protests in Minneapolis” - New York Times

To America's Police Officers- I believe it’s important that we talk about George. We understand what happened and we do something to proactively prevent it from ever happening again

So what happened? The problem is in our electronic-have-to-get-information-now social media platforms we often get filtered information. We get skewed information. We get the wrong information. In this case we only have to use our eyes and ears.

I don't know anything about Mr Floyd. I don't know if that is even important right now. I know he had a family who loved him very much. I know he had friends. I know he has a community that is outraged. In my opinion, based on the totality of what I have seen thus far, they have every right be upset. I am upset with them.

We ARE better than this.

How do we prevent this from happening? How do law enforcement agencies combat this? 

How is this fixed? 

Theodore Roosevelt said “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

The answer is simple but requires work.

It’s about training, standards and accountability.

We must invest, with vigor in our personnel as we have invested in other socially responsible programs. There needs to be a paradigm shift in training that stresses common sense and practical procedures. Procedures that both insure the safety of our personnel and those that they encounter.

We must have high standards and training for those that do not meet standards. Dismissal for those that cannot be remediated.

Is this harsh? Sure it is, but the public deserves the best service possible.

Accountability needs to go both ways. Our personnel need to be held accountable for their actions. Our law enforcement leaders need to be held accountable for their personnel, period. The truly bad guys need to be held accountable for their actions. 

The x-factor is here and one that people do not want to discuss is the public, individuals being held accountable. Our laws in California have become ridiculous to the point that the bad guys are leaving the jails before the police officers get to their cars in the jail parking lot. We need to repeal and replace with something smarter and better AB 109 and Propositions 47 and 57 in California. They are utter failures in my opinion. - But I digress as this is not a rabbit hole I want to fall into and discuss.

Can we afford Training, Standards and Accountability? I do not see how we can NOT afford them. Our government spends tons of money on programs that to some seem fairly pointless. Being a guy who worked in government (I guess I still do part-time) I can assure you that I have seen my fair share.

So how do we move forward? Well I think it takes a leadership at the highest levels to make bold and brave decisions. I think it could start with one voice from the public - just like a single drop of rain, can eventually create a flood.

I call upon our politicians on both sides of the aisle. I call upon law enforcement leaders. I call upon law enforcement officers. I call upon those great and strong law enforcement organizations to lend their collective voices.

I will be the first to say it -

I want our law enforcement officers to have better more consistent training. This needs to be a priority and not an afterthought. I want to see high standards for performance and training for our law enforcement officers. I want to see accountability.

I asked in the title of this blog "Where are the good police officers?" The answer is most all officers are great and good. They serve their communities with honor and are truly caretakers. I am proud of them and I am proud to have served alongside them. They are as upset at this as all of you.

Thank you for reading this and listening to me. Please share this with your government representatives and politicians.

Please be good to each,

Dave

Sheltering in Place While Supporting Local Business

Locally in San Benito County, the novel corona virus shelter in place (SIP) began on March 17th....the day I was hired as Public Information Officer (PIO).

That day, many local businesses had but a few hours to figure out what their next steps were. The shelter in place rumors had been swirling around for a few days granted. Other communities had already enacted them around our country. But it was a shock to our locals. Heck it was a shock to me. I mean holy paradigm shifts Batman...

So as we ventured into the days and weeks ahead, we got some clarity on the "rules". Some businesses moved to delivery or take-out schemes. Other businesses closed because their business model didn't really allow much wiggle room. Other businesses had to close because they were defined as non-essential by the Public Health Order and or the Governors Executive Order. 

My point, all businesses, job sites, projects and other things that keep food on the table and bills paid are in fact by definition, essential. That not even disputable. 

Now we are in a quandary. Many us are home for the SIP / Stay at Home order. Some of us are still working. To maintain our societal norms, we need folks working, kids in school to keep the machine of our economy to chug forth. 

From my desk, I cannot do much to change any of it. But I have some suggestions to help our local businesses. After all;

• Who supports your kid’s soccer team with a sponsorship?
• Who lets your Girl Scout or Boy Scout sale their fundraiser items in front of their businesses?
• Who employs your friends, family and your teenage son/daughter for their first job?
• Who grows and produces your food?
• Whose sales tax generation supports local public services and infrastructure?
• Who has a neighbor, friend or family that is local business owners?

The answer is of course local businesses. Reminder, local owners also own franchises, so don't dismiss them either. 

Here is what I am asking you try to do:

Support local businesses!

Louder for people in the back - Support local businesses!

1. Purchase take out items from local restaurants, kitchens and to-go spots. Tip your servers
2. Buy locally sourced produce if possible.
3. Support our local super markets (corporate or local) they employee of a lot of local people.
4. If you need service on your vehicle - Local shop
5. If you need an emergency repair - plumber, construction, roofing, cement, etc.....whatever your emergency - Use local please
6. Comment on social media often about your excellent experiences using local vendors. 

After SIP

1.     Same as previous list

2.     Shop at local business that were closed for SIP and 

3.     Use local services that were closed for SIP

4.     Encourage your fellow residents to do the same

5.     Comment on social media often about your excellent experiences using local vendors. 

My chief thoughts today are all places that employ people are essential and we need to support them with our wallets, period. 

Just a few thoughts as I am drinking my morning coffee......as always be nice to each other.

Dave 

Community Face Covering Programs and Why Your Community Should Do One

This note is for community leaders, official or not.

Sometimes when you’re sitting around the table (virtually or social distancing of course) the synergy of the room inspires ideas and innovation.

Such is the case with this tale....It should be noted that on December 31, 2019 I retired as the Police Chief of our City of Hollister, California. I was enjoying my retirement until one day I took a call asking me if I was possibly interested in helping out the local county (San Benito County, California) with the COVID-19 crisis as a Public Information Officer (I did that before in my prior job many years).I said yes......thus this is how this story begins. 

But lets fast forward a bit. California is sheltering in place. My county has been sheltering since March 17th, 2020. We upgraded and extended the SIP order on March 31, 2020........

It’s April 19, 2020 and I am sitting with my co-workers in a boardroom after a Zoom meeting. Now we are weeks into the Novel Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic and these meetings are now the routine. Occasionally though, after a meeting we all find ourselves in the same room together. Weird that something that we have taken for granite all these years, human interaction, is so rare now. So I begin talking about a problem I am anticipating that I think will soon surface for our little cadre. 

Let me set the stage; we were on the eve of a new Public Health Order coming to fruition from our Public Health Officer. In each county in California, the Public Health Officer has the authority, by law to do Public Health Orders. This new order would follow two other others for Sheltering in Place (SIP). This particular order was one that other communities had already adopted a form of. The new order will be a face covering requirement (for public places, essential workers, etc.). 

Thinking about the optics of such an order is important. After all, this order would require people to cover their face with cloth of some sort. There were health implications, economic implications and for some possible Constitutional questions. 

The health implications were complicated. The CDC and Surgeon General had made previous statements of the ineffectiveness of cloth masks. Then the CDC released this guidance on face coverings. Explaining the research was cumbersome because of the previous edicts. However because the guidance/recommendations made sense to most people, it became easier to understand the theory behind it.

The economic implications were right in front of us. Many people were sheltering in place; those same people were not working. Many filed for unemployment but were still waiting. Many others were small business owners and found the process for a small business loan or paycheck protection plans slow and difficult to navigate. Many people simply did not have income. 

Others still were upset that the government was attempting to tell them what they had to do and what to wear. For many, this wasn’t an issue. But for many others, this was a tremendous and possibly constitutional issue. I completely get that perspective.

Folks, nobody wants to wear a face covering on purpose (excluding obvious religious and cultural customs of course) that doesn't already have too. That's the other implication of a face covering / mask order. They are simply not comfortable. 

Enter the problem - If we enacted a face covering requirement, even a simple one. There were community members who were going to be overlooked and out in the cold to comply because economically it wasn’t possible or other related issues. 

So knowing the work group I was part of did not have the bandwidth and realizing that the County I worked for most likely did not have the resources anywhere. I lightbulb flashed in my noggin as I was talking to my friends. 

Why couldn't we have a service organization help us? They are really good at people motivation and during this crisis probably have the time to assist. My first thoughts were how could this benefit the community. How could we put something together that really helps as much as possible? 

I had heard of and seen many community members making homemade face coverings/masks after the CDC guidance came out. Most of the time, these folks were charging just a few dollars or giving the face coverings away to community members. I wondered if we offered to help pay for the materials and preparation, how many of these face coverings could be produced by community members. 

I thought that we should provide the face covering for free to those community members that could not afford or did not have the means to make one for themselves. I figured that one COVID -19 patient in our local community hospital would cost thousands of dollars for treatment. Imagine if that patient wasn’t covered by insurance or simply could not afford to pay the medical bills. That medical treatment would be covered by our tax dollars. A simple investment into face coverings might reduce instances of transmission, thus the possibility of our precious tax dollars being used for medical treatment charges would be reduced. The economy of scale was truly pragmatic in this example. 

Along with helping our local residents with getting face coverings, this program also had the benefit of directly stimulating the local economy in a small way. 

So searched around a little and inquired at the local Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce really liked the idea. Loved the idea of helping the community and also.....helping the community. 

The county I worked for allocated $5,000 and the City nearby (Hollister) allocated $5,000 for the program. The Chamber of Commerce put the outreach together, built the program and tracking for receivables. We put out a joint press release here on a Sunday.  

In less than 24 hrs. all $10,000 plus another $2,000 more from two other donors was gone. All of it allocated to community seamstresses and groups that were making face coverings. Some also just wanted to donate the face coverings. The Chamber of Commerce told me that they received calls from all over the nation asking for face coverings.

So now we are in the middle of it, the order is pending being released. We are now considering because of demand and available community help, additional funding and up scaling the operation a bit. 

If your community is going to mandate a face coverings order / ordinance than what are you going to do? Are you a leader? Are you a problem solver? Have you considered looking at it from another’s perspective? All questions you should consider.

So my advice is to let your community get involved in solving the problem. They want to help you. They want to be involved. They also want to get back to work. If their efforts in helping the community with this project possibly provide a path back to normality and getting people back to work, they will want to help you. 

So leaders, go lead, give it a shot. People want to help you.

What is Homelessness

A beginning is a very delicate time…..

As a veteran of 29 years in law-enforcement I saw my share of homeless folks in all three jurisdictions I had the honor of working in (Los Banos, Redwood City and Hollister, CA).

Let’s talk about exactly what homelessness is. Homelessness is something that is sort of like a cornucopia there’s all kinds of different things inside the cornucopia but all contained in this one vessel or word / category. Homelessness is just like that.

But it is so much more.

When I started in law-enforcement, homeless folks were few and far to be seen almost anywhere in California. There were a few folks that we saw; you know that one crazy guy that sat on the corner all the time, or there was a guy that stayed at the bus stop and slept on the bench there all the time.

There wasn’t a lot of these large homeless tent cities you see now. In fact, I don’t remember any at all until maybe 15 to 18 years ago. Probably more like 18 years ago, when I was in the bay area and I worked in a town called Redwood City, as a police officer.

Redwood City had a homeless issue, but it wasn’t a huge one and did not rise to the level of public nuisance or major public health issues. There were a few folks that were living in corners of buildings, alleys, under bridges and medians of different roadways and highways. It was clearly not as big a problem as it is today.

I won't dive into any of my theories as to why there has been an astronomical increase of homelessness over the last 15 or so years, because I don't do politics. The jest of it is, there are just a ton of reasons but many have their roots in the economics of the past 15 years or so.

I have responded as a patrol officer to homeless calls/disturbances in all three jurisdictions I served in. I admit that I have possibly arrested homeless individuals to help them get a warm bed in the past. To be sure there was a codified crime that occurred in those instances, but honestly I would be lying if I didn't say that one of the benefits of the arrest was that the individual was off the street in a warm place. I have given homeless individuals my last dollar, my lunch, my clothes and given them rides on occasion. It is just the kind of person my parents raised and it also felt like something I needed to do to uphold the oath that I swore too. I do not deserve a “thank you” or a “good job” for any of this. Police officers do this and more each day and do not do it for praise, thanks or anything else, it is just who they are.

Over the last 10 years most jurisdictions begun taking some sort of a census on their homeless population. The genesis of that is so they can get federal funding for either low income housing, new shelters or whatever other services that are within the spectrum of homelessness that need to be addressed in the jurisdiction.

I guess it was about 10-11 years ago, I was asked if I wanted to be on the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County. Hollister City Councilman Doug Emerson, who was one of the founding members of the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County asked me. I decided to join the coalition board and see what I could do to help.

One of the first members of the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County I met was Robert Rivas. Robert had recently been elected to the County of San Benito’s Board of Supervisors. I am obviously pretty proud of the Assembly Members accomplishments thus far. We have some slight philosophical differences politically, but he has my trust and he truly possesses a servants heart.

One of the important concepts the SBC Homeless Coalition tried to do with services to the homeless population was to engage with the clients individually. This approach set us apart. The idea being, if we could solve the small problems and then their big problems might be easier to manage. If by example, the big problem was we needed a plane ticket for the client to go back to Kansas to reunite them with family, maybe they needed a job, medical assistant or a roof over their head we figured it out for that client.

We truly had some great success with many of those individuals. In fact some of those folks are independently living today, no longer on the streets and are functioning working folks. I was very proud of what we did with the Homeless Coalition of San Benito County.

Here’s the rub there was only five or six of us in the room advocating and working with the clients. We had a couple of paid staff/advocates that also worked very hard at the winter warming shelter we had. They connected with the clients and also helped them in many ways. Only having a few years in this advocacy, I quickly realized that the need far exceeded the SBC Homeless Coalitions capacity.

Several years ago, San Benito County built a permanent homeless shelter and resolved to provide services. They have received multiple grants and funding and now offer a wide array of services. I applaud their efforts thus far. The original SBC Homeless Coalition was no longer needed, so eventually it was mothballed.

Why did I tell you all of this? It's because I wanted you to understand that I have a thorough understanding of the topic and I have worked on many different sides of it.

So what is the definition of homeless, what is it?

According to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Social Work, homelessness is formally defined by the United States government as when a person “lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and if they sleep in a shelter designated for temporary living accommodations or in places not designated for human habitation.

But wait Dave has more…

The condition of being homeless is a lot of different things actually. It can literally occur overnight for some folks. it can occur over a long period of time for others. However the journey that got these souls there is really not important. What is important is that they are now homeless.

Let me just say this once, so you understand, there are folks in the world, in our community, in this state and in this nation that choose this lifestyle. This is what they want to do. This is not a result of not having a job, mental health or any other thing that you can attribute to causation of being homeless. They simply do not want to live in a home and would rather live out in the streets. There is quite a number of these folks that feel this way. For them that is the solution, we have to be OK with letting them live their life like that (with some exceptions of course). We must have rules of course but at the end of the day if a person wants to be homeless then we have to be OK with letting them live their life as they see fit, this is America, period.

You can broadly classify homelessness in four different categories, honestly there’s probably a myriad of different categories within those categories as well:

1. Couch surfers - there are a lot of folks out there that live with friends for long periods of time all over the place because they do not have a home. They are still homeless because they are transient nature and do not have a permanent address. Most likely they have jobs most likely they are completely indigent and that they have something coming in bats some sort of support could be found and support or some of the support that is giving him some normalcy and they do not live out in the weather. 
2. Mental health drug attic’s and alcoholism - are three of the biggest factors and things that I’ve seen in my career that are both causation of homelessness and for those folks to continue to be homeless. 
3. Migrant workers or other undocumented citizens - I think this definition sort of explains itself. But if not in a labor camp or you’re not working to a standard that supports living with a roof over your head in the community that you’re living in, then most likely living out in the weather on the streets is where you will most likely end up unfortunately.  
4. On Purpose - As explained in the paragraphs above. Like I said, we have to accept their decisions with a few exceptions. 

We discussed a little bit of the how, the who and some of my experience with homelessness. Let’s talk about what we can do. I will make a list:

1. Stop all sidewalk service. Stop bringing food and clothing to them in parks and on the streets. Direct them to the shelter kitchen for food and expand its capacity. 
2. Increase sidewalk service for mental health and medical.
3. Try to connect to the individual clients, solve the small problems (my phone is broken, I haven't eaten, I need medicine, etc.)
4. Limit the handouts, increase social skills training / job training / job opportunities. 
5. Introduce very low income / no income temporary housing (exposure to the elements / other homeless lifestyle habits cause hospital visits. Hospital visits cost local hospitals many millions of dollars each year, providing a roof is literally cheaper in most instances). 
6. No more camping on city streets, parks or alleys. 
7. No more setting up their little camp spots all day with trash and belongings where our children / families play and frequent. 
8. Establish areas where the homeless can go/camp, that has bathrooms, water and power outlets (this is a big one). 
9. Increase in programs that encourage families to stay together. Provide free parenting classes, adult education and college. 
10. Bring back drug court, it really worked. 
11. Free, proactive and on-going mental health, medical and other counseling will double the success rates for many of these folks. 
12. Take law enforcement out of the homelessness continuum of care and options on the tool belt. Law enforcement is just that. If laws are being broken call them. Being homeless is not a crime. 

We have to remember that tomorrow we could be in their same situation tomorrow. We have to give folks the benefit of the doubt, but not at the expense of our safety, property values and cleanliness of the community we live in.

That's all I have for now. Be good to each other.

Dave

The Next Thing

As I retire, I realized the other day, as far as my career at Hollister PD and as a law enforcement officer in California, there will be a lot of "lasts" for me, really quick.

The last time wearing the uniform. The last time opening my office door. The last time walking into the briefing room. A lot of lasts.

Auctioneering at the
FBI Academy

Such is life and its impermanence. According to Buddhism, everything in human life, all objects, as well as all beings whether in heavenly or hellish or earthly realms in Buddhist cosmology, is always changing, inconstant, undergoes rebirth and redeath. There is wisdom in those thoughts.

Will I miss all of those things and experiences. Sure I will. But I am excited for the future. I am excited to be able to do the things that I have always wanted to do.

I will spend more time with my family, my dogs and of course keep trying to live a healthy, active lifestyle. I will do more obstacle course racing (Spartan races), I will work on more projects in my shop and around the house. I will volunteer even more around the community and help with those projects/programs that are important to us all. I will advocate for important and publicly beneficial programs in our region. Maybe more....who knows

First ever Spartan Race
Monterey, CA

I would like to hike the entire length of the John Muir Trail or maybe even the Pacific Crest Trail someday soon. I would love to read more. I would like to write more, perhaps a few books. I want to travel more with my wife. I want to see my family and friends more.

Work? Sure I will probably go back to work soon. But it would have to be the right fit for me personally. People have asked me if I "see myself going back into law enforcement or government?" My answer is a easy "yes", because I have a servants heart but I would want to make sure it fit into my families lifestyle and plans.

Winston Churchill once wrote "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

So perhaps this is the end of the beginning of my story. I am truly ready for the next challenge. I am ready for something else. At the gym, before a work out (crossfit does varying programed workouts each day) I always say "Lets do this" just prior to beginning. So I am saying now "Lets do this" for the next chapter.

Do I have some idea of what I want to do. Sure I do (keeping it close to the chest for now). However I will say, I am going to be flexible.

My buddy Tyler and I at the SBC Fair
a few years ago

I remember my mom telling me I could do anything I wanted to do in life. I just had commit to doing the work to attain/earn that goal. I remember my dad working with me for hours on different sports stuff to help me practice. I remember us working on throwing the discus for literally hours at a time. He was tired from working all day, but he was committed to helping his son be the best he could be. Hopefully I am little like both of my parents.

I am ready to get to get busy with the next thing.

always be good to each other,


Chief

So Long, Goodbye...Wait a Minute

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