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Hello Rialto Now readers!!!!! An awesome time was had by all at the first Coffee With The Chief in Rialto for 2015. Why was it awesome you ask? Well first off its kinda nice to have a strong yet open Chief of Police. So many people hold Police Chiefs and their command staff on such a high pedestal that they become “LIKE” gods. When they are simply men and women that will risk their lives for complete strangers. Now that fact isn’t something to be taken lightly but it also isn’t a reason you can’t stop and ask them a question.

Today’s Coffee With The Chief covered a lot of areas today. It was held at the Coco’s restaurant on Valley and Riverside Ave’s and the waitress was super nice as she took care of each persons order and kept the coffee flowing. Chief Farrar was in attendance along with Cpl. Marquez, two Detectives, three Lieutenants and Captain Deanda. Chief Farrar began by welcoming everyone and went over these topics:

• Crime Reduction – Overall Crime was down by 20% in 2014. Chief Farrar said that crime had been dropping for a while now and does expect crime rate to level off.
• Women’s Law Enforcement Fitness Challenge – On March 21st Rialto Police Department will be taking any females interested to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department physical agility course and going over the physical agility course portion of the tests and training to become a Sworn Police Officer. Chief Farrar said its his goal to attract more females into Police Work and hoped that this event would be the catalyst to attract them. The most difficult portion Chief Farrar said was scaling the 6ft wall and that they would help the women learn a technique that would lend them success on this obstacle.
• How does Rialto Compare in Crime Stats to other cities? – Chief Farrar said that he has been asked this multiple times and has been reluctant to venture down this road because of the differences each local city faces. He decided to look into it finally and the results were promising. Chief Farrar compared Rialto to three other cities that touch rialto, have police departments (not sheriff) and are of comparable size. Cities he used where Fontana, Redlands, Rialto & San Bernardino. Rialto had a lower overall crime rate than all cites that were used. Redlands had a lower violent crime rate than Rialto. Even though Rialto has more residents than Redlands.
• Promotions – Chief Farrar said that the Department is looking to do some more promotions in the next 4-5 months these promotions will add two more captains.
• Work Load Study – Rialto Police Department will be doing a Workload Study to better evaluate if the work load is being evenly distributed.  Rialto Police is now at 103 Sworn Police Officers and is only down 3 budgeted Sworn Positions. Chief Farrar hoped that the workload study would give them a clear idea of where to look to add more resources and or staff.
• Rialto Police Appreciation Awards – On February 20th Rialto Police will be recognizing staff and community members.
• 20/20 Interview – Captain Randy Deanda was interviewed by ABC News 20/20 show about the Judith Oakes case. Judith Oakes is the former Rialto Unified School District employee that was caught and convicted of stealing school lunch money down her bra to the tune of over 1 million dollars.
• Request a Training – Rialto Police Detectives went over the police program that offers training to local businesses on how to best protect themselves from becoming a crime victim.
• Cold Cases – Rialto Detectives also let us know that they are waiting on the DA’s office to approve the case files they have on two cold cases in Rialto. Since 2013 the Detectives Office has closed 8 cold cases.
• Use of Force & Police – I asked a question about training for local community groups especially the Flores Park Neighborhood Watch in better equipping our residents on how to properly handle a situation with a officer and avoid the horrible situation on both ends. Chief Farrar said that the key is to follow the instructions to allow for a more positive outcome more often and avoid tense standoffs that should have never happened.

Below are a series of You Tube videos that show a reporter and a civil rights activist undergoing a use of force training with Maricopa County Sheriff. Chief Farrar said this is a great way to see how a situation where someone isn’t following instructions can lead to horrible consequences.

http://youtu.be/b5PuLeR7Wt8 Video 1

http://youtu.be/uVOQs8yb9P4 Video 2

http://youtu.be/tk-bXyNbsCE Video 3

http://youtu.be/yfi3Ndh3n-g Total Interview

http://youtu.be/pAJXP0okzwk Post Interview