SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — When Darren Goodman looks at this wall of past police chiefs, it’s hard for him to hide his emotions.
In the sea of white faces, he’s the first Black Chief of Police in the city of San Bernardino.
“When I look at [the wall] and I get down to my picture, I feel what other people feel,” Goodman said.
Still, in his first year in his new role, he doesn’t plan on letting that define him.
“I won’t let anyone relegate me to just being a Black chief. I’m a chief of police, and I’m just as good as any other chief of police,” he said.
Chief Goodman originally thought he was going to play football. When that didn’t work out, he said he was drawn to law enforcement to help people, getting his first job with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in 1991, where he spent 27 years.
Most recently, he was chief of police for the nearby city of Upland. Goodman said all the talk of defunding the police and efforts to demoralize the profession are partly to blame for the police shortage.
“You have less people wanting to come into policing. You have more people exiting policing than ever before and then you have criminals who are emboldened because they feel that society supports criminals more than they support the police, so we have a long way to go to recover from that,” he said.
But he also sees the department making progress.
“My officers are taking more guns and more drugs off the streets than they have in several years. We’re making significant arrests every single day,” he said.
“I am the first African American elected in the 7th Ward in over 100 years,” said San Bernardino City Council member Damon Alexander.
He and his wife, Felicia, are also among the honorees. Alexander said for him, MLK Day is about creating policies that help everyone, a reminder about equality among all people, regardless of race.
“Let’s play that card to everybody across the board and when we do that, things tend to work out better than segregating each individual ethnicity,” Alexander said.
Aside from his work as a city council member, Alexander and his wife are best known as founders of the city’s annual Turkey Trot, which puts on a 5k and 10k race on Thanksgiving morning.
All the money raised goes to support various charities throughout the city.
“Sometimes, I like to stay in the shadows, but now and then it’s nice to be noticed,” Alexander said.
“I take my job very seriously. I don’t take myself that seriously,” Goodman said.
The police chief said his department is one to watch.
“It’s not been easy, but it’s been very rewarding and so I appreciate anybody who appreciates what I’ve contributed to the community for the last 30 years,” he said.
It’s a community honoring those who strive to make their city shine.
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