Hanford Insider: Encore Episode - Breaking Barriers - Stephanie Huddleston Hanford Police Chief

Transcript

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On this week's episode of the Insider.

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Rob is taking a break for a few weeks, so we'll revisit our previous interview with Hanford Police Chief, stephanie Huddleston.

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After an extensive nationwide search for a new police chief, it turns out the best candidate for the job was already proudly wearing the HPD badge.

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The City Council was proud to pin Stephanie Huddleston as the first female police chief in city history last month and I had the privilege of interviewing her.

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Well, it's so great to be here with our new chief of police, stephanie Huddleston.

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How are you doing, stephanie?

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I'm good.

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Hey, you've been on the job a few weeks now, a few days and weeks here.

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What are some things that you've learned about the city of Hanford now that maybe you didn't really take into consideration earlier?

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busy.

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Obviously, I'm in the learning curve right now and I don't have all the answers, but I think what stands out most is the outreach from other chiefs the sheriff, but both retired and active duty that have reached out to say, hey, we're here to support you and you know there is a learning curve and if you need help with anything or you want to run something by us, don't hesitate to reach out and use the resources that you have.

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And so that's been really helpful, especially these first few days, just kind of adjusting and making that transition.

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So let's take it back to your rise in law enforcement, if you will.

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What inspired you to become a peace officer inspired you to become a peace officer.

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So funny story.

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I was not that kid that grew up saying I'm going to be a police officer when I, when I grow up, I wanted to be a school teacher and I was going to COS with liberal studies, working on my associates, and I took a elective class with a retired police officer who was teaching criminology and it just sounded interesting to me and so I took the class and our final assignment was to go on a ride along with your local agency and write a paper about the experience.

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And so I came to Hanford PD and I did a ride along and it was kind of a slow night, nothing too exciting.

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And so they said if you want to come back, you know tomorrow night and write again so that you can write your paper, feel free to come back.

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And so I did, and I came in and wrote along with the officer and it was a blast.

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It was so much fun.

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Just the anticipation, the excitement of what was next and what were we going to be doing that night and the fact of it being something different every day.

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And then I got to see firsthand the professionalism of the officers and how they dealt with people and in talking with them, you know our whole goal is to leave them better than we found them.

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When someone's calling for help, you may not be able to solve their problems, but anything you can do to help them leaves them in a better position.

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And I was, I guess, just moved by the career itself.

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And so I changed my major to criminology and I finished up my bachelor's in criminology and with the intent of going to the police academy.

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But at that time, with all the schooling, I couldn't afford to go straight into the academy, and so I applied to corrections, I applied to probation Anything that I could find that was closely related but didn't require me to go to an academy and in the meantime I started working on a master's degree in criminology and the first place to offer me a job was Kings County or, I'm sorry, Tulare County probation.

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And so I went to work for probation there and moved over to Kings County and worked as a probation officer for six years and I really enjoyed it.

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But I still always had that feeling that I want to be a police officer for Hanford PD.

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And so after six years as a PO I quit my job and went to the academy and I got hired by Hanford Police Department three days before my graduation and I've been here since that's fantastic.

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So on your journey to chief of police, you served in many different capacities in the department.

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Can you tell us a little bit about some of those positions that you held?

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with the public and helping people, and so I did that for quite some time as a patrol officer.

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I was a field training officer and I really enjoyed training our new officers that were coming in and teaching them how to do the job, and so I moved from that promoted to corporal and then sergeant, and as a sergeant I was our FTO supervisor and so I got to supervise the other FTOs that were doing the training and then I was moved into the schools as a school resource officer.

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I was actually the first sergeant to hold that position, which was interesting because it wasn't something that I had really ever seen myself doing, to be working in the schools.

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But I actually loved it once I got there, being able to interact with the kids and help them, see us as a mentor and not someone to be afraid of, and helping them with their problems and just the day-to-day interactions with the kids was amazing.

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And so I did that for just under two years and then I got promoted to lieutenant and from lieutenant I got promoted to captain about just under a year ago and so and then now made it to the to the chief position.

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So you love the youth.

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That's where I first met you is when you were a school resource officer at my school, and I know that you're very involved, very passionate about the Police Activities League and what it does for the youth of the community.

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Can you give us an update?

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I know there were some upgrades on the building and the program is very successful.

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Can you tell us a little bit about that?

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Police Activities League and we really just had boxing.

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And then we decided to incorporate our Explorers post into the umbrella of PAL, since it was dealing with the kids, and from there we incorporated the Junior Explorers program, which is an after-school program in partnership with Hanford Elementary District, and so for a while it was just the three of those that we were running.

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And then we recently have added mountain biking, which has taken a little while to get up off the ground just because of all of the preparation and planning and training involved, but that should be starting this summer.

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So we're excited about that and it's just been a goal to continue to expand the program to interest a more variety of kids.

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I mean, not everyone wants to be a boxer, not everyone wants to be a boxer, not everyone wants to do mountain biking.

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So, taking into consideration that we are a nonprofit and that our funding is strictly through grants and donations and fundraising, and so trying to grow the program but still stay within our boundaries of what we can actually support financially, the programs are all free to the kids and so we end up attracting a lot of youth that otherwise wouldn't be able to do after-school programs for financial reasons.

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Their parents may not be able to afford to put them in soccer or some kind of after-school program, and so it's a great way that our officers can mentor the kids, that they can be involved in civic and athletic programs, but it doesn't cost the family anything, and so I've been very passionate about that.

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Yeah, that's great because I know that a lot of these youth leagues are charging fees to participate.

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They've got costs to cover.

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So being able to have something like this in the community that reaches so many people that otherwise wouldn't be able to participate in a youth club that is so good for them, is awesome.

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Let's move to the department now.

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What are some things that you'll be doing to ensure that the officers received proper training and give them opportunities to grow through professional development?

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So we have a training matrix that we follow.

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It basically outlines the training for staff based on their current position or assignment.

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In addition, they can request specific training that they're interested in, areas such as updated first aid, cpr, driving tactics, shooting, weaponless defense, but also the de-escalation tactics, the communication skills, things of that nature, and that's every two years.

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In addition to that, we do a lot of in-house training use of force, simulation you know, obviously, our firearms ranges, things like weaponless defense and how to protect yourself physically if someone's trying to fight, and things of that nature.

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So, just continuing to stay on top of the training and make sure that they receive what they need to be able to do their job.

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So in a previous interview that I had, we talked about the ability of the department to take care of their officers and people that work dispatchers Obviously a very high stress job.

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What are some things that you do or will be doing to ensure ethical behavior and integrity with all of your staff?

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I think the biggest thing is setting clear standards and expectations and making sure that we're doing the right thing and leading by example from the top.

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Expectations making sure that we're doing the right thing and leading by example from the top, avoiding complacency and providing the training that the officers need for you know, and checks and balances, investigating allegations of any kind of misconduct.

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And I think it's just important to know that most of the individuals that get into law enforcement are in it for the right reason and they want to do the right thing, but also they're everyone's human and sometimes they make mistakes, and so we have to evaluate that.

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Is this a?

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Is this a small mistake?

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That's a training issue, or is this something that you know is going to cause you to no longer work either here or in this career?

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But we take allegations seriously and we we investigate them fully and then we go from there allegations seriously and we investigate them fully and then we go from there.

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So I know the department has been involved in a lot of different community activities.

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You mentioned PAL.

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There's a lot of ways to connect with the community, and what are some things that you'll be doing to help build and maintain positive relationships between the police department and the community?

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I think the biggest thing is communication.

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A lot of times, people don't like what they don't understand or they're not familiar with, and so getting out into the community and having the face-to-face interactions.

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But also I'm working with our community relations manager to revamp some of our social media, making sure we're pushing out information that people want to know or that they need to know, and so I think that really communication is key.

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Some of the other things you know transparency.

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We always talk about transparency and I'm really supportive of our officers and, like I said, I believe the majority of people want mistakes when they're made and admit when we're wrong and try to correct that, whether it's a training issue or whatever it may be.

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Working to always improve and I feel like we can always.

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Even though we're doing a pretty good job, we can always do better and so working to always be better.

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So the community wants to support the police department.

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We appreciate the transparency to support the police department.

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We appreciate the transparency, but what are some things that the community members at large could do to help support the police department and keep Hanford safe?

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So I would say, you know, we appreciate the sharing of the information and when we're trying to push out certain information and seeing it shared and we talked about social media, certain information and seeing it shared and we talked about social media I think it's a huge asset for us in the realm of getting out information that we need out.

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But sometimes it becomes an issue during critical incidents and situations where things are unfolding and we appreciate the public wanting to get the information out, but sometimes it's actually detrimental to us from a safety point of view or a tactical advantage, For instance, things like SWAT operations.

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There's been times when we'll see something on social media as the incident's still unfolding and it can be a real problem for us tactically and safety for the officers.

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So I would say the biggest thing would be just be mindful of you know, when we have operations and things like that, that it could actually hurt us.

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So one of my listeners, when they heard that I was going to be interviewing you, they had a question about body cams body cameras that officers use.

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Does the Hanford police officers wear?

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body cams.

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We were actually one of the first agencies in the area.

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I believe it was 2014, when we started using the body-worn cameras and what we saw initially was a little resistance I think it was more apprehension and not understanding the purpose of them from the officers.

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But quickly they realized it's really advantageous because it eliminates things like false claims of misconduct and things of that nature.

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Initially, I had a personal experience where I was the watch commander and a lady had come in to make some allegations against an officer that were very, very serious in nature and had the opportunity to tell her hold on, I think he had his body camera, let me just check it.

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And when I did, I was able to tell her hey, I reviewed it and none of those things happened.

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So it really officers quickly started to see it as a protection for themselves, also for documenting cases and crime reports.

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It's real hard to talk to someone and engage in a conversation and write down everything they're saying, but with the body cameras they can go back and, you know, get the details that they might have missed in their notes when they're talking to someone and be able to have more accurate reporting of an incident.

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And so I think for those two major reasons it's really become a great asset for us.

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So in the neighborhoods we hear a lot of fast cars, modified exhaust systems and stuff.

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How is the Hanford Police Department cracking down on traffic violations like speeding or reckless driving?

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So we do have a specific traffic unit.

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I mean, obviously any officer can take care of violations that they're aware of or that they witness.

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The hard part is we can't always be everywhere all the time, and so I think the best thing would be just to tell the community.

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If you're having an issue, call us when it's happening.

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If you can get license plate, get license plates and you know we'll do the best that we can to enforce those laws.

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So what you're saying is we need more officers.

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We do need more officers.

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Ok, so in the press release announcing your hiring, you said that you plan to make employee morale a top priority and you're going to look for ways to recruit new officers, because we need more officers to be able to crack down on some of the shenanigans.

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Right, so we want to retain the best police officers in the Central Valley.

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How do you plan to accomplish this?

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So, it's really two parts.

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So the morale issue I think the most important thing is just paying attention, making sure employees' concerns are heard and, if there's things that need to be fixed, acting with a sense of urgency to get that done.

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In addition to that, like I already mentioned, just making sure employees feel appreciated.

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It's a hard job, and anything that we can do to let them know that they're appreciated is really going to help.

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We have supervisors, and so right now our biggest issue has been staffing shortages, not only on patrol, but in dispatch and records as well, and what that does is it causes unnecessary workloads for the employees that we do have, causing them to work longer hours, work overtime to make up for those shortages, and then the exhaustion from working so much.

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It really takes a toll on employees and their morale, and so I've made it a goal to streamline the hiring process.

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It's a long process and there's several parts to it Multiple interviews, a psychological exam, a medical exam, a polygraph, and so recently we've been able to really streamline the process and get qualified individuals hired more quickly.

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And then all of our recent hires have been lateral officers, meaning they're coming from other agencies and already having the experience as a police officer, and so when that happens, we don't have to teach them how to do the job, we just have to teach them our policies and procedures.

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And if they're not from the local area, they've got to get a handle on geography.

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But they already know how to be a police officer, and so we're way ahead of the game.

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Normally when a new officer starts they go through a four-month field training program, and if they're not from the area geography sometimes is a struggle or they're having certain areas that they're struggling they might go five or six months in training when if we hire a lateral you're looking at two to four weeks before they're out on the street.

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I mean, with that being said, once we get more staff hired, we can really focus on being more proactive than reactive.

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When we're short on officers, sometimes we're having 100 calls a day coming in and they're doing everything they can to keep up with the call volume and the reports that arise out of the types of calls they're taking, and it doesn't leave a lot of time to go out and look for the traffic violations or just simple patrols of neighborhoods, because they're running call to call.

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And so when we're fully staffed, it helps with the proactivity as well, because they're able to focus on hey, I like to work traffic or I really need to check on these neighborhoods in my beat, and it gives them that time to do that without just having to go call to call because there's more of them.

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Same with dispatch If we have more dispatchers, they're getting the calls quicker, they're getting them dispatched quicker, so just the entire process is improved when we have the adequate staffing.

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Well, hanford certainly chose the right person for this job and I'm so happy for you personally and I'm happy for the community, because they get to reap the benefits of having an experienced police officer who knows the town, who loves kids and loves people, and we're just so grateful to have you on the job here in town.

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Thank you, I really appreciate it.

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I will say I was overwhelmed by the support that the community has shown and it just goes to show.

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I've said it before when I started working here, this is where I wanted to work.

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I've never had any intention of leaving and that's part of it.

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Right is that community support and the relationship we have with the community.

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I've never had any intention of leaving and that's part of it.

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Right is that community support and the relationship we have with the community.

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I've always felt welcome here and I appreciate it.

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Well, we look forward to hearing from you again soon.

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Thank you.

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Well, that's all the time we have for this week's show.

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Have a great week.

Hanford Insider: Encore Episode - Breaking Barriers - Stephanie Huddleston Hanford Police Chief

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