 Good evening. This is what's going on. I'm John Lee our guest this evening is Darren Pytel Davis's new police chief Darren, I want to thank you for being on our show. You're welcome. Thanks for having me for sure Darren Pytel is the definition of a Davis homegrown City employee so let's start out by talking about before you were a city employee I don't know if I can go back that far, but we'll try so Before you were a city employee Your mom was a city employee and your dad worked for the high school So let's start by talking about your mom and then talk about your dad. Yeah, so I actually grew up in Davis and my parents moved here in 1968 my dad got a job at the Davis High School Teaching and I was born the year after they got here So I did grow up in East Davis near Birch Lane Elementary, which is where I went to school And it's actually a lot of people think that my mom worked for the police department before me But I actually started there before her as she started. I think it was already a Bike officer and she started just soon after I became a bike officer So we actually were both part-time employees at the police department for quite a few years and as I Moved into full-time employment. She also moved into full-time employment. She started off as a temporary part-time employee Work in crime prevention. So we actually were able to work, you know together for quite a few years But before she worked for the the police department my parents actually owned a store here in Davis And she worked in their store for many years and even when she worked at the police department At least for the the first couple years the store was still open and and she worked there During the day and then went to the police department a lot of the crime prevention stuff is done at nighttime And so she was able to kind of balance the two but for many years when I was growing up she actually didn't work so which was really nice because you know she I have Three sisters and a brother and so mom just spent a lot of time You know taking us to all of the things that we did in Davis and you know was extremely active in the PTA and and Back then they had groups, you know faculty wives and things like that So she was very connected to a lot of the other You know spouses from the other teachers. So mom was real she was always doing something and She was really a people person and so she was very involved and loved to go out and love to talk to people Which is why you know, she really looked for that job at the police department because doing crime prevention It was I mean your entire job is going out and doing meetings and talking to people and You know, she really liked that So, you know really that's Kind of what mom did So, how many years did she work for the Davis PD? Probably 12 years. Well somewhere somewhere in there. She ended up finally retiring You know at some point after dad retired She wanted to retire and They were dead mom wanted to spend a lot of time traveling and they were really big into traveling They would just get on the train and travel all over the country and just make stops in different places rent a car and Go out and see the country and then get back on the train and go to the next stop They also love to go on cruises and so they spent a lot of time doing that as well so I Was thinking about the best teachers in the history of Davis High and I came up with the name of a dozen teachers That's who I know about But your father's definitely on that list. He was Reputed to be able to teach anything. Yeah dad knew something about everything and You know everybody that's kind of one of the things that everybody would say is man I you know, I had your dad as a teacher and he knew everything You ask him a question and and he would just kind of go off in lectures about, you know, all sorts of stuff and You know, and I know that because growing up in it's a small place and I cannot tell you how many thousands of times somebody said I know your dad, you know, and I had him for x-class and you know he had a lot of crazy kind of sayings and you know a lot of times they would kind of tell me and and But yeah, he's he really I think could teach everything it's actually I think he originally was hired to teach foreign language and and I'm like why because he really was kind of a history buff and then ultimately ended up in the kind of the social Sciences teaching history government psychology economics When I know about when they they made a special senior unit about economics. That was at a point in time that I was I'm somewhat involved in the curriculum in the high school But the first I heard of the Pytel's was that your dad was teaching a psychology class And people were just blown away that how good he did it teaching psychology and when it was the first time you'd ever taught it Yeah He actually didn't have a tremendous background. He was just extremely well-written psychology And I think it was one of those subject matters. He just really really liked So he did a lot of reading and he taught it for a long time. I actually had him as a psychology teacher Well, so what it was like in high school for you High school was you know, I went to Davis high school and I actually had a great time in high school had to you know It was Davis was smaller back then. Yes, and quite a bit smaller You know and growing up Davis was a lot smaller So this is the one for note. I want to give you I came to school here as a freshman College 50 years ago. Yeah, it doubled in size from when I was a freshman until you were born, right? And it doubled in size again Between then and now. Yeah, and that gets us to over 50,000 I mean we're at 65,000 now, but it was 8,000 when in 60 and it was 24,000 in 70 so that sounds about right because You know my parents moved into East Davis and it was all brand new eat all of East Davis You know it was a brand new development, you know, which is ultimately where all my friends, you know lived and But it was a kind of that new section in town And it wasn't until later that most in North Davis was built and and I remember that from when I was a kid So, you know, Davis did just kind of grow up. Sure, um, you know But even back in the 80s when I went to junior high and high school, you know, the high school was still fairly small um, you kind of knew Most of the people that went there, there was only the, you know, Davis High School King was there, but it was very small and So it was just kind of real different Um, you know, obviously I knew all the teachers, you know, that was and uh, you know They all knew me You know, which was it was actually really nice because A lot of the the teachers that I had were teachers I had known My entire life, you know, right and uh, it was it was actually a really cool experience being able to take their classes You know after after having You know grown up and you know had they had been around it So many family functions and so many larger functions in in town The you know, Davis has 60 percent biology students and phds in biology I'm I'm an economist, but I worked in the college of engineering and there's more friction in the college engineering And in social science than there is in biology So when a biology faculty holds a party and the kids come over The other parents are really nice to the kids and they help them grow and develop and teach And so it's not uncommon that you meet a 12 year old who's having a conversation with the phd about what they're studying It's what the phd is studying because the 12 year old understand And that's you know, a third of davis. Yeah, so the other two thirds are absolutely normal. So Um, so any other comments about the high school? um if I don't know really what to say about the high school or then um, you know, it was uh Well, I actually was able to take my dad for several classes, which was really interesting the uh he My dad had this way of testing that it really didn't matter whether he was dad or not You know and and actually most of my my brother and my sisters, you know, also out for classes So I was able to take him for history Government psychology and um, you know, so that was you know, I really had a great time in high school um good friends You know, although most of my friends ended up moving away right after high school and You know and at that point I got hired at the police department, you know Soon after I graduated from high school And uh, so a couple of the the people that I grew up with actually still work at the police department Um, you know, so we kind of did that and you know lost contact with other people Although I've noticed in the past couple years I'm starting to see more and more people that I grew up with either coming back to town or you know They're stopping by more often And it's kind of interesting running into people, you know this many years later almost 30 years later Well aarp put us number eight on the list of places to retire and it's no surprise that all 10 are university towns Yeah, so the support system that college students need is similar to the support system that older people need And you can draw negative conclusions from that as well as positive. So um So let's talk about your career in the pd. So you Decided to become a cadet. Let's talk about that decision because everything flows from there so uh back in junior high I went to a holmes junior high school and um You know, it was one of those back then the a group of cadets would come and try to recruit other kids and to the program and Maybe twice a year they would show up at the junior high and do a kind of a lunchtime meeting and You know anybody who is interested, you know could stop into the cafeteria and listen to what it is that was going on Back then the cadet program was really large. You know, there was Any kind of the lowest levels 20? Kids participating and then there were times that there would be 50 You know kids in the program. So what's the age range the age range back then was 13 to 18 Okay, and so uh and I had just uh turned 14 and You know, they came to the school one day and I knew one of the the uh cadets and um There was actually a female talk tour and it's like oh, it's really great, you know, and you can have a good time So it was kind of one of those things have a good time Yeah, and and uh you learn learn about law enforcement and there's always stuff to do the meetings are fun and things like that So I went to the the next cadet meeting at the police department Okay, and it was fun. It was fun. Um, okay, the the cadet coordinators were really great Don Brooks, um who ultimately retired as a lieutenant. He was a sergeant at the time and and one of the cadet coordinators and You know, don was great. He loved being around kids and you know, was real active you know trying to come up with stuff for us to do and um the Rick Gilbo Uh, he was an officer and and ultimately he left and now does a lot of law enforcement training for across the united states Manny Guerrero, sure who retired at davis pd and now he's actually an officer over at the university police department, you know, so the three of them were real active in the cadet program and You know, we met twice a month and they always had, you know, different training going on So we could learn about law enforcement They uh back then they had cadets to just so many details. There was, you know parades and traffic control and security functions and you know all sorts of stuff that were involved in we did You know check the schools sometimes just having the uniform in a body Yeah, there's a presence that prevents other things from the police department was very small back then And so, you know, uh half the size that it that it is now And so a lot of times they just needed, you know, additional bodies to go out and And do all these events. Um, you know, the the city Was never cash rich, so they weren't able to pay, you know For personnel to do them and pay overtime for officers to do a lot of the details So they really needed volunteers and at the time, you know between the the cadet program and the reserve police officer program You know volunteers were just doing a tremendous amount of work for the the city you know, so I was able to You know kind of get involved and I ended up donating just a lot of time to the cadet program You know most of the years I was putting in over a thousand hours of volunteer time No, just working a thousand hours per year. Okay. Yeah good So there are 168 hours in a week. So that would be like six weeks total time 24 hours a day Yeah, so uh a full-time. I'm just saying that's yeah, it's a lot a full-time Compared to going to school or playing this sport. It's it's the same as playing in sport at least More than that. I agree a full-time employee works 2080 hours a year And not including, you know, then you start subtracting sick time and vacation time But there were sure, you know that that is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is Is and so I was putting in half of that. Sure volunteering. Sure Um There was just a lot of opportunities to to do stuff around the community and You know, I had a great time doing it and a lot of my friends ended up, you know being cadets So it it was just kind of one of these things that we were all to be able to work together and The cadet coordinators were great the department administration, you know, they were all Really nice people to work for and very supportive good, you know I actually felt very supported by all of the people in the department saying, you know, do good in school You got to go to college, you know, figure out what you want to do and You know, ultimately if you want to be a cop, you need to work here. So it was It was just one of those things that uh, you know, everybody's just kept on me, you know being a cop's a good career So Now's as bad a time as any what's the downside to being a cop? Well, you know, the the hours take its toll Um, you know, and certainly that's changed a little bit too and more modern, you know times Um, even in Davis, we deal with a lot of, you know, situations and Uh, you know, not all of them you kind of see the the other side of, you know, what occurs in Davis and You know, I've had to deal with a lot of, you know, really bad terrible situations over the the past the past You know 29 years, you know, and uh, so some of that takes its toll Um The you know more modernly, it's just the amount of time that you have to devote to doing the job You know back in the the 80s and 90s, you know, when you're off you're off and then They they made those pagers You know that that was the that was the worst piece of technology ever Um because then we had to carry a pager around and you're expected to You know when the when the pager went off you had to call in and and show up to work And the smartphone was just an extension. Yeah, and now now we have the the iPhones And you know people are texting 24 hours a day and people are sending emails, you know all day and night You know back then, um, you know on friday at five o'clock you left and Nobody expected an answer until monday morning You know and now you know people are wanting information seven days a week and Wanting to talk and you know wanting things done. So just the pace at which we have to operate now is just a lot greater That's number one number two is The whole world changed on 9 11 Yeah, it did. Um Both good and bad, you know, there's the I think we get a lot more support after 9 11 and uh You know people actually Pay attention and have an interest in security and safety I think in some ways people are more understanding of some of the the things that we do in order to You know ensure public safety, you know and and obviously the bad You know certainly The the flip side of having safety and security is people are really concerned about you know civil rights and privacy And you know we end up going to a lot of meetings to talk about the balance between the two How is it that you keep people safe, but also respect people's privacy and You know deal with things of you know profiling or people, you know looking at at others differently um sometimes because of uh, you know national origin and And uh, you know just the color of somebody's skin. So The the whole point of the law enforcement system in the court structure Is to mediate that debate between freedom of individual action The right of a group of people to do things and protecting the majority in the innocent bystander Yeah, and mediating that It's a it can be a very difficult balance The most powerful experience I had in politics was up at Fort Bragg And we were demonstrating on behalf of the redwoods and there were a bunch of people that were dressed in yellow And and they were drunk and there were a thousand of them and a thousand of us And there were 400 chp and deputy sheriff that formed a fence Between the two groups down main street in fort bragg And the turning point was when one of the demonstrators said we've decided there's been so much good communication That we're not going to get arrested And at that point the fence sagged because the police felt safe for the first time But that's how much you're putting your life on the line every day you put on the uniform Yeah, that that balance and and uh, you know feeling that safety and security You know at times, uh, you don't feel it You know and and there's been plenty of times when we're on a line here You know we have a lot of demonstrations and you know sometimes you you feel like okay Where's this gonna you know what can go wrong and you know, where's this going to explode? So that yeah that happens That's why you have training. We do have a lot of training I think firefighters may have more training than you do but It's right up there in terms of if you can anticipate a problem and figure out how to solve it ahead of time You're on you're ahead of the game compared to this situation Yeah, the amount of training over the past couple years, you know has just greatly increased You know police under there's just so many more expectations You know the level scrutiny that law enforcement center now, you know, it's unprecedented the and For good You know now everybody does if we're doing our job everybody does have their smartphones. Yeah do it our job Just do your job so people are recording law enforcement and and seeing what What's been going on and you know it ends up on tv and so now you have America and the in the world kind of viewing what law enforcement's been doing all these years and So it has created additional scrutiny, but a lot of it is good But the the you know law enforcement's had to train to a higher standard You know, which is also a good thing People are questioning now what what it is that we do and use of force and everybody's asking You know really good questions about is is there a better or a different way to do this? Well, that's an important part of the social discussion that has to go on I mean as I've studied Robert Peel a little bit the guy who transformed the british police service and that was 150 years ago And they're still doing it that way, but That you know, they still teach peels principles in the academy. That's in the in the very first week Well, I don't know what they are, but I assume that they're very powerful. They are they they it's kind of interesting because Those principles translate perfectly today, which is why they're still taught and the first learning domain in the police academy. Good Do you mind giving me a lightning summary of an example, you know, basically Really the principles are all about community policing You know and policing to the community and law enforcement being held to a standard in the community So each one of them is directly relates to that which is exactly what it is that The communities are asking, you know law enforcement across the country is to engage in community policing so it's just uh You know community policing was really big um for in periods in in history and As you know, the population kind of grew up in the Or you know grew in the 90s You know law enforcement agencies started to become more entrenched in community policing You know took kind of a back seat, you know, and then certainly in the last couple of years Everybody's saying, okay, where are these cops and why aren't they walking on the street? Why don't they know the community? you know, why aren't they talking to people and um, you know, so it's just a We're back to you know, something that was you know, well Happening back in the 1800s in in England and and certainly in a lot of places in the the 50s and 60s and some Because there was also a lot of you know, civil unrest in the 60s, but um, you know community policing was was being practiced in many places And then uh, you know, here we are right back to Trying some of the same stuff that was used back then well The least efficient police system would be one cop for each citizen So the most efficient would be the smallest police force and to a certain extent you use technology to magnify and amplify your ability But there's no way you can manage Crime you can only anticipate where they're going to be problems and try and address them on a timely basis Yeah, that's actually the what you just described is currently How we're trying to police So we've That the next step after community policing is okay. What is your policing strategy? And then how is it that you're identifying where problems are? So, you know, we started off many years ago saying, okay, Davis We we're going to practice community policing and and that's having the the personal relationships and interacting And then you have to pick a on top of just saying that's our philosophy You have to then say, okay, what is our policing strategy? And how is it that we're going to you know identify and deal with problems? So, you know now Progressive law enforcement agencies are moving into intelligence-led policing You know, which is okay. There aren't enough cops to deal with all of the potential issues So, you know, what are the the issues that we're going to focus on? So you have to identify those either and you know, really what we do is look for What are the hot spots and who are the hot people? You know that are out there engaging in crime and then trying to focus, you know resources So you use community-oriented policing and problem solving and the problem solving is Just going out and arresting somebody doesn't solve the problem Usually it makes it worse it does and it can make it worse So you have to come up with other strategies in order to, you know, reduce those problems So, you know, we have to be smarter and better, you know at what we do So, you know, we've moved from, you know, just community policing and that kind of philosophy to You know, including problem solving and creative problem solving now And then using intelligence-led policing to to help us, you know Move our resources to To where it's most appropriate So In terms of my having a plan for this conversation, we got off track and started talking about reality, but It was wonderful. So You became a cadet. I'm going through your career. I'm using that as a little bit of structure here. So So you were a cadet and then you got hired full time. You became a Bicycle officer. What was the sequence? So the sequence graduating from high school and going to college. So all of those things came together So I I think probably by the time I was 16 I decided I really want to be a cop And so back then there was basically two routes to becoming a cop the there was one route which is you go to the police academy and state law just says you have to be 18 to to be a peace officer in california Although nobody really hires 18 year olds, you know, most agencies set him in a major 21 so But davis was you know, I knew all the administration are like you'd be a good cop But I really wanted to go to college So I started a well what it's first started that I wanted to be a cop. So when I was 16 I signed up for the other route to becoming a cop which is going through the back then the reserve academy And so reserves were you know unpaid for the most part And you would still be a peace officer, but the training was different So that back then you could become a There's different levels of reserves, but you could become a level one, which is basically a full peace officer With only 240 hours of academy training followed up by 200 hours of on-the-job field training so when I was 16 I decided that I wanted to to be a you know a cop and so I decided to go to the reserve academy Well the reserve academy training was in sacramento and it was affiliated with sacramento city college So I applied and then had to get special permission from the dean To go through the academy because I was only 16 and just about to turn 17 So I had to take the placement exams and I tested, you know great to get in the academy and the dean of sacramento city college actually gave me permission to You know go through the program, you know before I was 18 so I went and uh did my 240 hours of classroom instruction and then Started applying, you know, I applied at the police department on my 18th birthday, which is in was in february So I was still a senior in high school and had already completed the Academic coursework for an AA degree No, not for an AA, but it was I think it was 18 units to go through the academy. Okay, okay, so um, so by this time You know, I knew that I wanted to work at the police department had applied to be a reserve officer And then I'd also, you know, of course, I wanted to go to college So I started applying at colleges and I really only applied at sac state You know, they had a great criminal justice program and I just let her want a major in criminal justice so I applied at sac state and You know got accepted at sac state had already finished up the reserve academy Then I it was just a matter of graduating from high school So I graduated because you need a high school diploma in order to be a cop Including a reserve sure and so Right out of high school though I wanted to go do something different for the summer So I actually went and worked as a camp counselor for a campfire camp and did that for two months and Then when I was at camp, I got a phone call from the bike officer Who was a cadet with me for many years and then became a bike officer. He called me up Well, I actually left a message with my mom who got a hold of me and he said, hey I'm actually going to be quitting the job if you want to be a bike cop You should go in and talk to the department So I said I actually would love that job. It's a great job to go to college And so back then it's a little bit different. It was a little different getting higher than it is now I Went into at the time captain walt nars office. I know what You know, so walt would had been there forever and walt knew me You know, uh, he actually used to live on the same street when I was growing up And so I walked in his office and I said I hear that the bike officer position is going to be You know opening and and he said, yeah And I said I would love that job and I and I said I will be a great bike cop And he said he just kind of looked at me and he said You probably would kid you're hired Wow, so what an interview it was So But no, no, you'd been interviewed for five years. Yeah at that point Everybody knew what I was doing. Yeah, they knew what where you were they were getting So, uh walt walked me down to uh, the chief secretary's office and said darin's gonna start as soon as he's done with camp and uh, we did the paperwork and I went right there on the spot. Yeah, and then you wrote home and went mom. Guess what I got a job at the police department But she knew about it. She understood. She gave you the information. Yeah, so Then at that point I was kind of set up. I was for the fall. I came back from camp Had my job waiting for me And was starting college at the same time. So I would go and Go to school, you know for a couple hours in the mornings and then come and work So and and back then I was a reserve and a bike cop So I worked as on a bicycle for 20 hours a week and I worked in a patrol car for 20 hours a week And in the patrol car, what did you do patrol? So I would basically you had a car to yourself Now originally I was working with an officer, you know in field training and I did the field training program and Doing it halftime took about a year Okay, and then uh You know about a year later. I was done with the field training and yeah, then I was working in a car by myself No, the a year training is great. Yeah, so Um, I mean, you know, the my understanding is that it's after you've done the academy It's a six weeks process the first two weeks The training officer makes all the decisions the second two weeks you make all the decisions But you can talk to the training officer And the third two weeks you can't talk to the training officer and they're grading you Then that one that's way back. Okay. I'm just saying that's what I know Yeah, now the the well actually even back then the training program was about five months in length full time You know now it's actually up to about six months full time Sure. So, you know, it's actually a lot more There's just a lot of training that has to be done, you know out on the field So I was able to uh, you know finish up the training Um stayed on as a bike officer and you know, that was help and pay the bills I had to work a couple of other part-time jobs along the way There I actually was a waiter at denny's and woodland for a while While I was a bike cop and a reserve so I was and I had to pay my tuition um and So, uh, I did that And then at some point I just said, you know, I really want to just go into kind of the full time Um, you know officer position So I took a semester off of school at sac state and then had to go back to the academy to finish out the training And so that took a couple of months and that put you back on the original track. Yeah So then right after actually about halfway through the academy Applied to be a regular police officer and You know, walton r was still, you know doing the hiring and he said, okay, you know, yeah You know and at that point, um You know, it's just a matter of going through the the oral board and you know, I passed the oral board and Uh, they let us know. Yeah, we'll hire you right out of the academy. So I started You know, I think I graduated from the academy on like october 30th and started full time on november 1st Sure So and at that point, um, I'd already been through the entire field training program So transitioning from, you know, temporary part time bike cop reserve officer to Regular police officer. I didn't have to do any additional training. You'd really been going through the For a long time. You'd already plateaued to the point that people are expected to be at when they're given patrol assignment. Yeah So I was able to start working the night shift right away. Um, went Back to finish out sex date And uh, you know graduated from there Soon after so everything at that point was just kind of falling into place So How long were you in patrol? I only worked for patrol for about a year and a half at that point and then A position as a motorcycle officer came up right and uh And I had never really ridden a motorcycle before but I love traffic enforcement And so and because I had already worked as a bike cop and it's that's just traffic Right and uh, you know as a patrol officer. I loved working traffic Just kind of one of those things that I'd enjoyed doing going out there and you know writing tickets and you know making the roads safer and Investigating traffic collisions and things like that. So I put in for the motor position and They said great and I got the the position Had to go through motor training, which was The the motor training is some of the most difficult training that Cops can do it was about six weeks um It started the the worst part is it started at the beginning of the summer You know, so you're out there riding eight hours a day, you know and 100 degree 105 degree heat And it was just and the the training itself is just really difficult Um having to ride and and do all the precision uh cone patterns and things like that It was just really difficult But I made it through the the initial part of the training and then the the final testing and You know and then in august, uh, you know, I was hitting the street, you know as a motor cop So I did that for a couple of years and uh You know looking back in my entire career. That was the fun time really it was Riding a motorcycle around davis and uh, you know, it was just It was such a great job, you know, you have to you know Work traffic and uh, you know, you stop people and you know, you give a lot of warnings and you talk to a lot of people and you know, you write some tickets and investigate some traffic collisions and You know go to schools and give talks about education and you know And you just get it right around and you get a wave to everybody and you just You know, that's that was one of the positions. You're extremely visible. Yes Everybody wants to talk to you. Well, you know, so people, you know, when you're sitting there working radar, you know People just stop and chat and want to talk about the motorcycle or what you're doing or And it was just, you know, a really great time So that was the only part that I hated was right in the middle of the summer when I was really hot And right in the middle of winter when it was really cold, but eight months a year It was fine So then you made sergeant I did so I was still a motor cop and a sergeant's position came open And I was really young and I said, well, you know, I'll go ahead and put in for it never expected to get promoted, but it's The uh, I constantly tell people you should test for positions when they come open because You just get better at the interview process the more that you do it And so, you know, I thought okay, I'll go through the oral board because I had never been through that type of You know a promotional or board, which is harder and different and Well, I got promoted So talk about the responsibilities of sergeant and how they're different than being a patrol officer. Yeah, so After I got promoted to sergeant, I immediately went to the night shift And I worked on the the busy side of the week, which was the wednesday thursday friday saturday nights And we had gone to by that point. We had gone to 12 hour shifts So being a brand new sergeant you're working the night shift Well back then there was no administrators that worked the night shift admin went home at five o'clock You know, we came to work at six o'clock And we left at six in the morning and admin didn't show up till eight in the morning And the reality is is the the night shift sergeants basically, you know, they run the public safety for for davis and You really didn't call administration out unless it was something really really serious and even then most of the time back then They would just say all right sounds serious, you know, good luck You know do the best that you can and let me know how it works out. I'll find out in the morning. Yeah, and uh You know, so and we were really busy, you know the downtown That so stuff is happening downtown with the bars. It was busy back in the 90s just like it's busy now um, so we we had a lot of stuff going on at downtown and You know all of the the good stuff happens at night time So I was able to run a small shift There I think there were seven officers assigned to the to the shift and I was a sergeant um Had a back then had a great team The back then it was it's a little bit different now The most experienced officers actually worked the graveyard shift It was kind of fun and uh, you know a good solid tight team and people just really liked the activity level at night And so that the most experienced officers in the department really were where some of them on on night shift So which was really good for a new supervisor I had a couple of guys that had been copped for quite a few years and You know had been on you know swat and had done investigations and different assignments. So, you know when something happened I had I had a really qualified personnel who could basically get us through well, they did get us through everything that happened So I just want people to get a sense of the I've got to tell this story So phil Coleman was the police chief and bob traversa was the city manager and they were best friends And so there was a red phone In the police chief's office on his desk and it was to the city manager And there were best friends. Well, I'm meeting with the police chief And the phone rings. Well, the police chief knows that the city manager is best friend is out of town And so it's not his best friend It's somebody else on the red phone and he stares at it and it rings again and he picks it up And it's the assistant city manager And she's in charge And there's a robbery at second street at the ampm mini mart And the chief says Jesus called the sergeant And hangs up the phone I just want to convey the sergeant is the one in charge of making it happen now Yeah, so phil was the the chief and And phil actually brought a lot of rules he came from oakham police department And and so phil was really the the chief that said, oh, hey, we need rules in this department And we needed to start writing things down and and uh, he was really great at that But one of his rules was in absence of higher authority the watch commander the sergeant. They're in charge They're the chief. Absolutely. And we actually still have phil's role today. It's a great role. Well My dad was in the military police. He became the provost marshal at oakland army terminal He went through officers candidate school He was late in getting into the officers candidate school. So he spent an additional period as a corporal He think like a month an additional month as a corporal before he went to be an officer He always relied on the sergeants more than the other officers did because he knew what they were capable of doing Yeah, it you know From the time that I was a sergeant to even now You know what I constantly tell people the sergeants really run the show You know, so people call 9-1-1 and they call the police and really what they want is a cop to show up Well, it's really not administration that shows up and handles the handles those calls It's really up to the sergeant to make sure that the the officers are out there doing what they're supposed to do So, you know, I'm constantly telling people it's really the sergeants that are running the show Probably the most important position in in the entire department as far as how day to day operations are running And you know, how it is that we provide service. So, yeah, the sergeants positions is just really important position So that's a segue to lieutenant and captain. What's the responsibility of the high ranking officer? So the at our department the the lieutenants are division commanders. So Like patrol we have a patrol commander who's a lieutenant and They're they're responsible for all five of the patrol shifts So we have five different shifts five sergeants who run each one of those shifts So you have an administrator who, you know, basically ensures that all of the shifts are kind of operating the same All the sergeants are on the same page And taking care of all the the personnel issues that arise from that And then for real critical incidents, you know, when you need to call an additional resources Then we have lieutenants go out and they assume field command But most of the time probably 99 of the time it's a sergeant that's doing that So The biggest problem that we probably should talk about is Social life in the downtown and how it can be good for the kids and it can be good for the rest of us So why don't you talk about The balance between the different Concerns and what your feelings are about where we're headed yeah, so you know really Downtown is interesting because like I said downtown's been busy for as long as I can remember, you know going back to the days when I worked, you know Which was the early 90s And you know, we had issues and you know, we had a couple of bars down there and they were really crowded And we had a lot of students down there drinking And we dealt with bar fights. We dealt with drunken public. We dealt with, you know All of the dui and all of the other things associated with with drinking You know for the most part though the violence that we had was it was really limited to kind of bar fights and there wasn't There weren't too many really serious incidents And we weren't really dealing with gang members and you know weapons except for What ended up happening at the grad? The graduate So when was it so back in Probably the Mid 90s Okay, the graduate was starting to get really busy and we Ended up dealing with back then a lot of gang members would come in And they would show up for for you know, friday and saturday nights And we ended up having some pretty serious incidents, you know, including, you know, some violence against us, you know I remember one of them There was a big fight and all of a sudden they just started picking up the big Rocks that were in the planners and we were getting big river rocks thrown at us You know, we started dealing with more and more incidents over there Well, we ended up ultimately we ended up working with uh The owner manager there and you know, they brought in additional security and You know over some period of time and some efforts with abc They were really kind of able to change things around and we ended up dealing with just, you know, fewer and fewer issues there And you know, for the most part downtown has been really busy, you know During that kind of interim period And then just in the the past couple of years, we've been trying to, you know, put it on the radar Let everybody know downtown's busy and we're starting to deal with, you know, more and more incidents where we're seeing some weapons We're dealing with gang members again Things were kind of picking up and still dealing with a lot of alcohol related arrests, you know, the kind of the usual well A couple of things have happened the the first thing that we kind of started seeing were There was a couple of bars downtown that were, you know, attracting Really large numbers of people And including and they would have lines so you'd end up having to deal with two or three hundred people waiting in line Because there weren't that many establishments downtown And then we started dealing with all of the problems that Occur when you have people standing in line for a long period of time with really no hope of ever getting in the bar And they're drinking and they're drinking yeah back then we didn't have an open container law so You know, the standard was They would go to to the market there at second and b street grab a couple of 40 ounces And then they would go stand in lines at the bars drink and You know wait to get in so we started You know having to deal with a lot of fights because of that Beer bottles being broken, you know public urination and so we started kind of rethinking, you know our strategies on Reducing problems and one of the things that we were doing was kind of denying the the ABC permits for new businesses that wanted to come in and so we actually Took a look at that and said well, you know if we had more establishments We'd probably have fewer line problems people would actually be inside of a business Under the control of the the bouncers their proprietor. Yeah, and so and it You know was really logical. So we started, you know approving more and more abc licenses downtown And it actually did solve that problem We were moving people off the streets and kind of into the bars and you know for the most part Most of the bars don't have problems and they have good staff and they're able to control things Well over the past, uh, you know year especially The we're kind of seeing a change a little bit in in who shows up at the bars And we've seen a little bit of change in party behavior on davis So and it's all kind of all related So it used to be that we had very large parties drinking parties in the residential areas in town You know Back when I was on patrol On thursday friday saturday night. It was not uncommon to go to parties where there was, you know 500 to a thousand You know people Had taken over an apartment complex and were partying and you know being allowed and lots of drinking going on That was pretty routine And it was pretty routine that we would show up and break up the party and you know write some noise tickets and everybody'd go on their way The well now We don't deal with those large parties and the the number of noise calls that we get is really dropped significantly We still have them, but we're just dealing with far far fewer parties And you think that's because there are more bars downtown? Well, I think that there's more bars downtown But we're also saying a change in culture with the students So the you know that you brought it up the kids now are smart and the the average student You know their drinking is It's just not part of what it is that they do they're they're taking their studies serious These are 4o students who are getting into ucd So we're just dealing with fewer drinking problems for the most part So we're we're dealing with that change Sorry so So the the bars just weren't as busy with students I think and Now we're dealing with people coming in from out of town right that aren't that they aren't worried about their 4.0 grade point No, they're not so The Darren play tell has just been named the chief of the davis police department by the city manager um, he's in the process of selecting his management team I originally asked him to talk about the future of the davis police department But he said he's not ready to do that because he wants to meet strategically with his team And come up with a new plan now that he's the chief So I hope that you'll come back on the show in six months and give us an update on the Status of your department and what your plans are for the future. I can and as a matter of fact I just sent on an email to all the department staff I've promoted a deputy chief today Congratulations, so uh Lieutenant ton fans been promoted to wow. Well that that makes this news I'm sure it'll make the newspaper before it gets on the air, but congratulations That's a very important decision. It is um Any last words? No, uh, we'll be going to city council. I'm here pretty quickly to start talking about some of the the issues downtown absolutely Pay attention get involved. I'm sure the chief wants to hear what you have to say Um, I want to thank you for being on our show. Thank you Uh, this has been what's going on. Thanks for watching. Good evening