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Troy Castillo
2007 was a great year for our department. We increased our manning to about 95 officers and a few are either in or getting ready to attend the police academy. However, as many of you are aware, we still need more officers on the lines to combat the ever increasing crime caused by the population explosion in the Coachella Valley. Tourism is our bread and butter. It only takes a few incidents to receive bad publicity and our tourists will go elsewhere. It is important that we have enough officers to protect the citizens of Palm Springs and our tourists.

Recruitment is still going to be a chore for our Personnel & Training Section. It is important that our pay, benefits and working conditions remain competitive with other similar cities, or candidates will go elsewhere. These things are also important for officer retention. The association will continue to work with the city to remain competitive.

In May 2007, we had our annual softball tournament and in December 2007, we had our annual golf tournament. Both events were very successful thanks to the efforts of Sergeant Dan Rose and all of the volunteers that helped him. Our association made a record amount in donations from these two events. The money will be used for assisting members and their families in time of need and fallen officers’ families in Riverside County. It will also be used to help other non-profit organizations who assist our citizens and for our scholarship programs. Your association is looking at other ways to raise funds. We would like to bring the rodeo back to town that we used have several years ago. We will eventually be constructing a web store on this website to sell our products, such as t-shirts, cups, pens, patches, hats, folios and coins.

Chief Gary Jeandron’s last day at Palm Springs Police Department was on December 31, 2007. We would like to wish Chief Jeandron farewell. He will be busy campaigning for Assemblyman for the 80th Assembly District. Captain Mike Hall became the interim Police Chief until Chief Dave Dominguez took over the reigns on February 4, 2008. Chief Dominguez joins us from the Riverside Police Department, where he was a Deputy Chief.

On a final note, let’s be safe on the streets. “2007 has been a deadly year for law enforcement in the United States, with 186 officers killed nationwide as of December 26, according to preliminary statistics from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.). When compared with 2006, Officer fatalities rose more than 28 percent to the second highest total in nearly two decades; fatal shootings surged 33 percent, while a record 81 officers died in traffic-related incidents.”

(source: www.nationalcops.org & www.nleomf.org)

Sincerely,

TROY CASTILLO
Troy Castillo, President