After a turbulent five-month search for a new police chief, City
Manager Dale Shaddox selected Jeff Miller this summer to replace
the retired Bill Pierpoint. Miller, 45, started as Hollister’s
chief Sept. 8.
He most recently served as a sergeant at the Sonoma Police
Department. Before that, he spent 18 months as the public safety
director in Rohnert Park and 20 years with the Los Gatos Police
Department.
After a turbulent five-month search for a new police chief, City Manager Dale Shaddox selected Jeff Miller this summer to replace the retired Bill Pierpoint. Miller, 45, started as Hollister’s chief Sept. 8.
He most recently served as a sergeant at the Sonoma Police Department. Before that, he spent 18 months as the public safety director in Rohnert Park and 20 years with the Los Gatos Police Department.
Free Lance: You went from being a police chief in Rohnert Park, back to an officer position in Sonoma, then worked your way up to being a chief in Hollister. Talk about resilience, and did you ever doubt you would make it back to this position?
Jeff Miller: I think when it comes down to it, I didn’t doubt I would make it back up. It was more of a question of when. But along the way, as I’ve said many times, I really like this job. I like being a police officer. I’ve always liked it. In my lifetime, there are seven or eight careers I’d love to have. But you only get one lifetime, so I picked the one I wanted to do the most, and I’ve never been disappointed in it. Maybe there have been disappointments along the way, but if I looked back, I’d do it all over again. I’d be a cop, just like I did. I just enjoy it.
FL: In Rohnert Park, what leadership experience did you gain, and how can you use that in Hollister?
JM: One of the important things was to learn more about the situation I’m going into. I really didn’t know enough about that (Rohnert Park) situation.
I think different groups had different expectations and wanted two or three different types of people to run the department. The support wasn’t where it should have been for some of the changes that were needed and, I think even today, are still being made in the (Rohnert Park) department.
Certainly, every step you take in your career, you learn things about dealing with people. On the patrol officer level all the way up to the chief level, after I talk with people and have met with people, I give a little check about how things went.
For me, everything is learning, adapting and increasing your ability to talk with people and learn. Certainly, the experience taught me a lot about talking with people and dealing with people. And so, my approach has changed.
FL: What are your first impressions of Hollister, and what needs improvement in law enforcement?
JM: The biggest thing I see is a need for openness – not only within the department but within the community as well. That’s why I’m so interested in community participation with our personnel. I want to see more of that. I think that’s one of the things the community is looking to – a department that’s a little more open and receptive to hearing what needs to be done.
One thing happens all too often and I’m not saying that it’s the case here. Law enforcement tends to suffer from – more than it should – we forget what the community expects from us. We forget to ask: What do people want from us? And that’s one of the things I hope to hear when I meet with different groups.
Each community is different. That’s one of the great things about having a local police department. Each community is a little different in what it wants from its police. As long as we observe constitutional rights and law, there are different things communities are looking for.
FL: What can you do to deal with budget problems?
JM: As I’m new here, I’m still learning about our budget process – what it consists of, what we’ve had traditionally. There are a lot of evaluations to make. And certainly during tough times, we have to evaluate what we can do with what we have.
One of my roles is to be as open and honest about what we can provide with the funds we have available. I can’t make promises to provide the level of service which we don’t have the staff or money to support.
My intention, and the way I look at part of my role, is to say, “This is what we can do and this is what we can’t do.”
I don’t make the policies for the city on what level of services the city wants to provide. That’s (City) Council purview. They make the policies and they decide the level of service the community needs and can afford. My job is to provide that service that we have the funds for and the Council wants.
FL: Hollister has gang issues. What will be your strategy against them?
JM: I think, all too often, we sometimes tend to concentrate on just one strategy, rather than incorporating a lot of different ideas. Certainly, education is one of the things at the forefront. It’s my belief that sometimes, because we’re so busy in life, with jobs and commuting and with all the responsibilities, that sometimes parents aren’t all that aware of gang behavior or what constitutes gang behavior.
They sometimes miss those little cues kids give early, that they’re getting influenced by gangs. They (kids) play at it and they emulate some of the behavior. I think if a lot of parents could catch that, much the same as catching drug behavior.
Communication is part of that, helping to enhance communication skills with parents and kids. That’s a big thing. I think it’s important for parents to spend time with their kids.
Intervention. When you run into those situations, where you have kids who are starting to commit those crimes, make those associations, do things beyond playing around.
We can take steps, whether it be in our Juvenile Impact program, which is great. It’s inter-agency, which I think is really important, where it’s not just police. It’s probation, it’s schools, it’s the police department, it’s all kinds of things put together in that program. Intervention, when it first starts, is really important, rather than just sweeping it under, or allowing mistakes and sending a wrong message.
Really, when you get into the harder core issues, when you get into the continued behavior, then I think it’s a strict enforcement issue, where we have to take decisive action. And this is where we have to work as a criminal justice system, as a community.
It can’t just be the police. We have to work with the Sheriff’s Department. We have to work with the District Attorney’s office. We have to work with the Probation Department. We have to work with courts. We have to work with all the different branches in the justice system to make sure we have a comprehensive program.
FL: What are the biggest misconceptions about police work?
JM: That we can solve every crime in an hour. That seems to be expected. “CSI,” there are a lot of scientific techniques. But when I’ve talked to some people who are knowledgeable in evidence collection and processing, they’ll tell you some of that is pretty off the wall.
I think one of the other misconceptions is an almost robotic, tough cop who doesn’t feel anything, who doesn’t have any emotion or anything. And I think, all too often, people tend to look at the badge, uniform and car. And they forget there’s a person behind all of that, who comes to work, works hard and wants to help people.
You don’t get into this profession to make money. It’s not one of those things at which you’re going to get rich. You’re going to get hurt.
Police work is the only civilian, non-military occupation I can think of, where people try to kill you when you do your job. I mean, there are people actually trying to kill us because we’re trying to do what the community is paying us to do.
A lot of times, people just forget. They don’t understand: Cops get tired, they have days off, they want to be with their families, they eat dinner.
FL: Favorite cop shows or movies, or are they all bad?
JM: They’re not all bad. When I was a young officer, “Hill Street Blues” had just come on and I really enjoyed that. We used to talk about that when we’d get to briefing: “Did you watch ‘Hill Street Blues’ last night?”
I have, what I’d like to think is, a good sense of humor. Even the ones that are parodies I get a thrill out of watching. Sometimes they’re just hilarious. Unfortunately, some people think they’re true. I don’t like the misconceptions. But on the other hand, I love to laugh like the next person.
FL: Raiders or 49ers?
JM: Rams. I grew up in Southern California. Always been that way, always maintain those loyalties. But I will say, I enjoy watching the 49ers and Raiders play. They can be explosive teams. If I had a choice of games to watch if the Rams weren’t playing, I would turn on a 49ers or Raiders game.
