New Danville Police Chief, Steve Simkins spoke at our meeting on October 5. He has been on the job for just 2 months. We remembered him fondly from the time he spoke to us when he was in charge of the Martinez jail a few years ago. And he said he enjoys speaking at Rotary Clubs because it reminds him of his father who was an enthusiastic Rotarian for many years.
The new chief follows the “Broken Window Concept’. What that means is that if you tolerate a broken window without fixing it, then pretty soon other things will go wrong. Thus, paying attention to the details are important. He wants his officers to treat the community as if their family lived there.
According to the Chief, the biggest problem facing Danville, is ‘crimes of property’, which is only gotten worse with the bad economy. He wants his police to throw up a ‘Force field’ to keep the bad guys out, and make Danville less of an attractive target. He reminded us that we shouldn’t leave doors unlock, garage doors open, and electronic items visible in cars.
Chief Simkins told us that the Danville Police have volunteer opportunities. Right now, they have about 20 volunteers that help out in numerous types of office and community jobs. They were white shirts at events. There is also a Volunteer patrol car, that is driven around noting open garage doors and other potential crimes of opportunity. Then a letter is sent, with the message “If I was a thief…” In addition, they have Volunteer Reserves that need to go through formal training. It consists of three different levels, with the highest at 6 months of night classes.
