Chief Michael Sellers
addressing the first Briefings
(August 2nd) at Levi’s Stadium
agencies did not want the increased liability and the potential personnel complaints
that would follow when citizens interacted with officers wearing their patches and
their uniforms at the stadium.
A decision was made to ask these
same cities that if they would be willing
to allow their officers to work the games
in Santa Clara uniforms. Chief Sellers
began talking about this plan to have
“double badgers” work the stadium.
Thankfully, the Santa Clara County Police
Chief’s Association had a long history of
collaboration and cooperation among the
various agencies in the county. Most of
the chiefs in Santa Clara County agreed
with the plan and our “double badger”
program was initiated.
We decided that we wanted to hire
100 new per Diem police officers and we
wanted to hire them quickly. This was a
huge task that involved many staff members at our department and City Hall. All
of the P.O.S.T. hiring requirements had
to be maintained even though these were
working full-time and Reserve police
officer officers from other agencies around
the state. That meant over 100 interviews,
backgrounds, psychological tests, and all
of the accompanying paperwork. Through
Officers at Briefing
the tireless work of our recruiting officer
and the human resources department, we
hired 95 per Diem officers before the first
event at Levi’s Stadium. Those 95 officers
came from 37 different agencies throughout California. Some officers actually
come up from Southern California and
spend the night before the game just for
the opportunity to work at the stadium.
We are thrilled that 37 different agencies
have been willing to let their full-time
and/or reserve officers form this new coalition of officers. Without these Chiefs and
Sheriffs being willing to try something
new, we would not have been successful.
New Bike Patrol Officers
FALL 2014 | California Police Chief
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