King City in search of permanent and interim police chief

With four days into the New Year, King City is without a police chief again. Since the arrests of several King City officers last year, the department has had an interim chief but his time has run out.

“We never want to go through this again and we will never go through this again,” a bold promise from King City’s newest Councilman Mike LaBarre.

A recruitment firm is narrowing the list of applicants for police chief and once they do that, then they will provide a list to the city’s selection committee, LaBarre said. The application process ended Dec. 12.

Interim Chief Dennis Hegwood took over in March, but he was only able to work 960 hours according to his retirement benefits. Right now, the top ranking officer is CommanderAlejandrinaTirado.

Now the city is in search of another interim chief to bridge the gap.

Mayor Robert Cullen said they’ve reached out to the City of Greenfield to see if Chief Adele Frese could split her time with both departments.

“Those are brand new talks, there’s been nothing that has come across the council yet about that,” LaBarre said.

The uncertainty of the King City Police Department has some business owners skeptical. ?

“We really need somebody who is there for us, not somebody that is going to come and go,” said Norma Dominguez who owns a bridal shop downtown.

She said one chief per city is the way to go, not two cities sharing just one.

“One hasn’t been able to take care of King City itself so how would they be able to manage both?” she said.

Amidst recent controversy over police transparency, the city has approved body cameras for its officers. Greenfield has already started using them and Salinas is mulling over which style of camera it should go with.

Not only are the cameras expensive, but even more costly is the storage of the date the camera records.

State Assemblyman Luis Alejo introduced a bill in late December to help with that funding.

“I took the initiative to do a state match-it fund that will give 50 percent state money matching either federal or local money to implement body cameras in our local police departments,” Alejo said.

The state legislative session starts Monday. If the bill passes this year, the money will likely not be available until 2016, Alejo said.