I have a relationship with Rialto Police and I just happen to know the officer and his dog pretty well. So when the SB Sun printing the story of the Police Dogs fate the comments on social media made me sick. My wish is that the SB Sun would do everyone a favor and stop using Social Media if they don’t plan to monitor the response their posts get.
According to the story in the SB Sun article written by Greg Cappis:
“Jango, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, will be returned to Adlerhorst International Inc. — a police dog training facility in Jurupa Valley — which will look after him for the rest of his life.
Adlerhorst officials signed a memo of understanding, agreeing to care for the dog, according to Rialto police Capt. Andrew Karol.
He said the department purchased Jango from Adlerhorst and wanted to make sure the dog would retire to a comforting and caring home.”
According to the same story Captain Andy Karol stated:
“Mastaler has not been punished and, per procedure, will undergo an administrative investigation, which has not been launched, according to Karol.
Jango’s retirement reduces Rialto’s K-9 force to three dogs.
No decision has been made yet as to whether he will be replaced.
“It’s not really creating a lag for our department but at some point we may determine that we may want to increase that back up to four,” Karol said.”
As you can see from the video above Officer Mastaler has excellent control of the dog as displayed at the Rialto Family Festival in 2014 (See video above).
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.
Today January 9th 2015 is LEAD (Law Enforcement Appreciation Day)
#IELEAD2015
If there ever was a year our Police Officials could use a “Thank You” or a “Pay It Forward” this year would be that year. Here locally Rialto Police have had a busy end of 2014 with a few deaths and some more aggressive robberies. On top of that every cop has been on edge since the Civil Rights Community decided to take their frustrations about the decision to not charge the Ferguson officer in the shooting death of Michael Brown out on police all over the Country.
Being a Police officer is not an easy thing to do. You put on a badge and a uniform and are the front lines of safety in our cities and streets. Look at San Bernardino that community has been falling apart around its self with many major crimes and Officer Garcia from San Bernardino becoming gravely shot and left fighting for his life.
Today please stop and say thank you even a simple two word phrase and a hand shake can change someone’s day.
We would also like to highlight two elected officials we caught saying Thank You to Rialto Police by purchasing doughnuts for the police today. Its nice to see our leaders “LEADING” us to do the right thing.
Knowing a lot of First Responders read this blog I would like to say Thank You for doing what you do and always working to keep us safe even if you don’t know our names. #Isupportfirstresponders #IELEAD2015
Rialto Police Benefit Association & Jet Blue made it possible for two of Rialto’s Finest to honor Officer LIU & Officer RAMOS who were gunned down in their squad car in NY City.
As you will see in the paragraph from the Rialto PD Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RialtoPD Corporal Cunningham & Officer Pulido are members of the Rialto PD Honor Guard. Honor Guard members are versed in the proper rituals when presenting at any public event and especially funerals. Also both men are wonderful Rialto Police staff and Cpl. Cunningham is the two time winner of the battle of the badges Chilli Cook Off held at the Annual National Night Out event every August.
“On December 27, 2014, two of our Honor Guard Members, Corporal Gary Cunningham and Officer Javier Pulido attended the service of New York Police Officer Rafael Ramos. We would like to thank JetBlue and RPBA for sponsoring the trip and making it possible to show our support for our fallen brothers in Blue.
Our thoughts and prayers are with NYPD and the families of the fallen officers.”
Corporal Gary Cunningham and Officer Javier Pulido standing in a NY subway with two of New Yorks Finest
Corporal Gary Cunningham and Officer Javier Pulido dressed in their Honor Guard uniforms.
In all of the turmoil since the latest officer involved actions in 2014 one local leader calls for his colleagues and the media to ACT NOW in response to the rise in the war on police officers in the united states. Councilman Shawn O’Connell from the city of Rialto penned a statement that will make you think about the men and women that keep us safe in this country. (See Below)
I agree with Councilman O’Connell and wish people would take a step back and help our police. When our police feel supported and understood they feel more comfortable to do their jobs extremely well. Also the trend of holding court on the street with a cop is a poor choice. Police officers are not the lawyers, judges or jury they are a protection and information source for our legal system. As community leaders and media sources we need to do more than a simple call for calm and turn down the rhetoric.
This coming Saturday December 20th Santa Claus will be flying in on a helicopter to greet the children of the IE. His fly in will be at Sunrise Church on Ayala & Riverside Ave at 2pm. (See flyer below)
Come out to the final Coffee With The Chief from 8am-9am at Coffee Nutzz in Rialto on Foothill Blvd. Coffee With The Chief is an awesome opportunity to get information from the Cities Top Cop and ask questions of the Chief and his command staff. No matter what your connection is to Rialto your invited. Live, work, play or go to school here your welcome it is one of the best ways to connect with local law enforcement.
Three weeks ago rialto Police released a Press Realease on a major sweep they did that targeted tagging crews in the City of Rialto. We wanted to get some first hand knowlwdge from a source close to the investigation so we reached out to Rialto Sgt. Andy Shrouds.
Which crew was responsible?
We do not release the name of the tagging crew because that is exactly what they desire; the publicity. If we were to release the name, then they would gain notoriety and status within the tagging community.
What portions of the city were their tags most widely done?
The vast majority of the tagging has taken place in the central portion of the city. Along Foothill Blvd. between Pepper and Cactus, and north and south from Baseline to Merrill.
What other agencies or resources were uses to make these arrests (school district, local businesses, community)?
We had manpower assistance from the San Bernardino County Probation Department in the form of 8 officers. We also acquired valuable intelligence from Rialto Unified School District Safety Officers.
Can you speak to recent issues where graffiti was not removed even though it was called in?
I have not personally heard of any instance where graffiti was not removed if it was called in, bet then again, we are not responsible for the removal of graffiti.
The final candidate forum of the 2014 election year is today and will only highlight two of the may areas up for grabs on November 4th. The two areas that will be covered are City Council ( two seats open out of four candidates ) and Rialto Unified School Board ( two seats open with six people for the seats ). One interesting portion of this event is it appears Ed Scott will poke his head out and finally speak publicly on the race which he has primarily done through private fundraisers and mailers & signs. It will be nice to see a majority of the candidates out together and we can hear their view points at the same time. The event is at the Rialto Senior Center on South Riverside Ave. See flyer below for more info.
Rialto is lucky to have a Chief of Police like Tony Farrar. Chief Farrar really wants to hear from you the community he is one of those gems in law enforcement that really cares.
So come out tomorrow August 12th at Coffee Nutz on Foothill at 8am and have some coffee with the chief of police and get some awesome updates on the Public Safety environment here in the city.
rialtonow 