Deputy Chief Sam Somers has been with the department since 1984. He says the department will increase its efforts to make officers a positive force in the neighborhoods they patrol, "We're not here just to arrest. If you look at our school resource officers. They're not on campus to arrest the students.  They do more time mentoring the students than anything else. They try to be a guide and a resource to those folks. 

He says the department will bring back some elements of the "Problem-Oriented-Policing" program that was eliminated two years ago by budget cuts, "We're gonna wrap that concept and that connectivity right back into our patrol division. That we're gonna have that connection so those folks are gonna know who their patrol officers are just like they knew who their P.O.P officers were."

Somers says the department will roll out a new "Cop and Clergy" program in an effort to get newly-identified gang members to leave that life.

 

The department is also studying ways to deal with the people he calls "Typhoid Offenders" who lure young people into crime. 

 

Somers started with the department as a Community Service Officer and has managed every division within the department. 

 

The new chief says budget cuts caused some inefficient policing and that -combined with the release of state prisoners into local neighborhoods-  caused crime to go up last year. 

Local police chiefs, Mayor Kevin Johnson and the City Council were part of the selection process, but City Manager John Shirey made the final decision.

Somers and three other Deputy Chiefs in the department were the only people considered for the position.

This coming Saturday will be his first official day on the job.