ANAHEIM’SUNIQUE APPROACHRULES OF ENGAGEMENT
NEW TO RELATIONSHIP BUILDING FOLLOWING 2012 UNREST
RAUL QUEZADA TAKES
By Greg Hardesty
aul Quezada peels a small bandage off his right arm.
The Anaheim police chief didn’t hurt himself. Rather, on this morning in late
August, he donated blood.
The removal of the Band-Aid is an apt metaphor for what Quezada has been doing since
being named top cop of Orange County’s largest city on Dec. 17, 2013: tearing away barriers
between his department and the community.
Back-to-back officer-involved shootings in 2012 sparked unrest in working-class Latino
neighborhoods that culminated in a downtown riot.
In repair mode, Quezada – who served as interim police chief for six months before
becoming the first Latino police chief in Anaheim’s history, as well as one of its youngest,
at age 44 – has been taking steps to improve communication with the public and make his
agency as transparent as possible.
These efforts resulted in a milestone on Sept. 8 when the Anaheim City Council agreed to
purchase 250 video cameras for $1.15 million to be worn by the city’s 360 sworn police officers.
A yearlong study of body-worn cameras by the Rialto Police Department showed that cameras
result in a dramatic drop in use-of-force incidents and fewer complaints from the public.
FALL 2014 | California Police Chief
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