Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin is set to pass on leadership of the department to acting Police Chief Phil Hansen on June 23.
Martin was hired as police chief at the end of 2012 after four months as interim chief following a “string of controversial incidents including a number of officer-involved shootings, the tragic death of an on-duty police officer, and the retirement of the former chief,” a release from the city said. Chief Martin hired Hansen as a commander in April 2013.
Martin and Hansen retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, where they both served for 30-plus years.
Hansen had been retired from the LA Sheriff’s Department for “a year to the day,” Hansen told the Sun, when Martin called him for help with the “rebuilding effort” for the Santa Maria Police Department.
“That appealed to me,” Hansen said. “Chief Martin and I had not worked together closely in Los Angeles. … While we knew each other to say ‘hello’ or by reputation, we never actually worked in the same chain of command down there.”
Martin was interested in Hansen’s skills in tactical operations, according to a release from the city. Hansen also has experience with development committees for the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and was a named a director emeritus of the National Tactical Officer’s Association, the release said.
Hansen said he brought a different perspective to Santa Maria coming from a larger agency, which is “shared in many respects by the chief.”
“We assimilated a similar culture, spoke the same language if you will,” Hansen said.
Under Martin’s leadership, the department moved to a new facility in 2015 and hired at least 90 new personnel, including sworn officers and professional staff. The new headquarters allow for a modern crime lab and an expanded detective bureau. There’s still more to be done, Martin told the Sun, but said he’s “really happy with the way things turned out.”
Other changes Martin made include a focus on community-based policing, a review and overhaul of department policy, rebuilding the department’s SWAT team, restructuring the department into three divisions from two, and initiating Operation Blue Watch, which placed 29 camera pods in Santa Maria for public safety, the city’s release said.
“Everything that we’ve been able to accomplish in the last five years, bringing it into a more contemporary police department, is something I’ve been very pleased to be a part of,” Martin told the Sun. “I came here and I didn’t know anyone in the city, and now that I leave here, I feel like I’ve got several hundred friends.”
Martin plans to take the rest of the year off, spend time with family, and await the arrival of his fourth grandchild.
Hansen said he is excited to “take the reins” at the Santa Maria Police Department as acting chief, and said he expressed an interest to the city regarding filing the role long term. The City Council and Mayor Alice Patino will make the decision regarding a permanent police chief.
“What we have here is a very hardworking community, and they deserve a good police department and they deserve to trust their police department, and I think we’ve worked very, very hard to achieve that,” Hansen said. “So, we’ll just look forward to taking it to the next level.”
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2017.