Salinas Police Department swears in Carlos Acosta as new Chief of Police
SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) - For the first time in over a year, the Salinas Police Department has a new permanent police chief once again. Chief Carlos Acosta comes from the San Jose Police Department following 26 years of service and was sworn in at a ceremony Monday morning.
“As your new police chief, I'm committed to prioritizing partnerships with our community and building relational equity. It's time to engage, educate, empower our communities to be part of the process and solutions," Chief Acosta said.
Chief Acosta said in addition to engaging with the community, he’s focusing on the agency's workforce especially with staffing shortages.
“Having the right workforce to really attack those concerns, while building relationships is important and ongoing training and education and development of my staff to making sure that they have the necessary tools to be successful," Acosta said.
He’s taking on the job as Salinas' top cop as several new faces are set to take over city council, as well as the mayor role.
“My plan is to collaborate, to engage and to work together. We know there's a lot of things going on in our city, and it takes true partnership to make sure this light intend to meet with all branches of government, right, neighborhood associations, businesses," Acosta said.
While he may be new to Salinas, Chief Acosta adds, “I'm gonna embrace the community like they have embraced me. I'm new to the community, but I'm not new to the profession, and I really look forward to building those partnerships.”
As for the two former acting police chiefs, Danny Warner and John Murray, they will both remain with the department as commander and assistant chief, respectively.
