The Allan Hancock College Police Department dodged a major blow on Jan. 16, when the Hancock Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously to fund much-needed improvements to the troubled department.
After several assessments of the police department’s practices, various meetings, and a thorough look into possible funding and systematic solutions, board members voted to implement a hybrid departmental system, which will include the use of both sworn police and campus safety officers, two dispatch technicians, a sergeant, and a campus police chief.
Improvements associated with the newly approved plan will cost Hancock an estimated $200,000 a year, according to the board meeting agenda.
“Maybe we will be that model police department on a community college campus,” board President Hilda Zacarias said at the meeting. “I think we can do that.”
The decision comes after more than a year of uncertainty for the police department, after a report conducted by a former interim campus police chief, Paul Grohowski, found the department to be inadequately staffed, trained, and funded. He also reported outdated equipment, technology, procedures, and facilities.
In a letter to Hancock President Kevin Walthers from January 2017, Grohowski said Hancock needed five additional police officers, another sergeant, and a project assistant, which would have cost more than $551,000. He also suggested replacing four of the department’s rundown vehicles and said the department completely lacked any type of records management system, leaving it without a way of adequately analyzing crime data.
Rather than fund those internal changes, Grohowski recommended contracting with another larger law enforcement agency, preferably the Santa Barbra County Sheriff’s Office because of its jurisdiction over the entire county. The consolidation would have effectively dissolved the Hancock Police Department as it functions now.
But Grohowski suddenly resigned on July 31, after only seven months on the job, and another interim chief, Ronald Schram, was hired weeks later. He, too, was tasked with assessing the department’s proficiency.
Schram’s report, which was included in the board meeting agenda, illustrates a much less dire situation. In it, he said that while the department is currently understaffed, he suggested adding only two additional officers. Schram also said it is not unusual for law enforcement agencies to struggle keeping policies and procedures up to date, and that “tremendous strides” were being made to ensure that Hancock officers were sufficiently trained. In addition, a lobby is being added to the police department building.
The department, he said, appears to be reasonably equipped with weapons, vehicles, radios, holsters, and uniforms. However, he said, replacing four or five police vehicles—Schram said the college’s large vehicle fleet is unnecessary—with golf carts would significantly reduce costs of transportation, maintence, and gas.
“A golf cart, it gets you there quickly from portal to portal as fast as you could ever want and better than a vehicle on campus,” Schram said at the meeting. “It really is the best.”
He also said the department’s parking enforcement, dispatch, and report management systems need to be updated.
At the meeting on Jan. 16, Schram, who was replaced as interim chief by Chris Nartatez after his contract with Hancock ended in December 2017, blamed a lack of stable leadership for most of the department’s issues. He said finding a permanent police chief should become the board’s top priority.
“Without that, it’s going to continue to falter,” Schram said. “Without consistency in leadership and continuity of command, it can’t grow.”
But many of the board members, including Gregory Pensa, were concerned that, as in past years, finding an adequate police chief willing to permanently work at Hancock would be a difficult undertaking. In his seven years as a trustee, Pensa said he’s only seen one permanent chief lead the department.
Still, the trustees didn’t show much support for the cheapest option provided by Schram: a non-sworn campus safety department, consisting only of campus safety officers with much more restricted powers.
Through that system, Hancock students and staff would have to call the Santa Maria Police Department when faced with urgent safety issues, and its response time would lag several minutes behind that of campus police, who have an intimate knowledge of the campus’ layout. Several board members noted that even just the presence of a sworn police officer could be more effective than punishment from a safety officer.
So Schram suggested decreasing the sergeant’s salary and putting the extra money toward raising the police chief salary, which he said currently tops out at about $89,000 a year. That would make the job more attractive to experienced applicants.
After the vote in favor of hybrid departmental improvements, Hancock police officers in attendance cheered and shook hands. They later thanked Schram for his feasible suggestions.
“If we have leadership who can advocate for the department in the name of public safety, and they become integrated as leadership with the college and into our processes, then I believe we’re going to have a strong, healthy, growing, learning police department,” board President Zacarias said. “And that’s what my goal is.”
Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash wrote this week’s School Scene. Information can be sent to the Sun via mail, fax, or email at mail@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 1, 2018.