ANAHEIM, Calif. — With the pending retirement of Anaheim Police Chief Jorge Cisneros, Anaheim is seeking the public's input for its next chief of police.
The city will host a second round of three community meetings to hear what qualities, public safety, policing issues, and changes residents and those who work in or visit the city want to see in the next chief.
The meetings will be held:
- Tuesday, June 6: Brookhurst Community Center, 2271 Crescent Ave.
- Wednesday, June 7: Anaheim Downtown Community Center, 250 E. Center St.
- Thursday, June 8: East Anaheim Community Center, 8201 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road
All of the meetings will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Residents who can't make it can weigh in online.
The recruitment comes as Cisneros plans to step down after leading Anaheim's police force since 2018. Cisneros will continue to lead the police department during the recruitment and transition, city officials said.
Cisneros, the former chief of police at UC Irvine, took over the police department after the rocky tenure of former police chief Raul Quezada. Quezada was the first Latino police officer in the city's history in 2014.
But after taking over a city reeling from riots caused by two police-involved shootings in the early 2010s, Quezada abruptly stepped down in 2017 after he received a vote of no confidence from the rank and file and calls for his resignation from police unions.
Anaheim's police department is Orange County's largest city police department and supervises the county's most populous city and the most visited. Tens of millions of visitors come to Anaheim to watch Angels baseball games, Ducks hockey, shows at the Honda Center, and events at the Anaheim Convention Center and Disneyland.
The next police chief will be the 37th in the 153-year history of the city's police department.
City officials said Anaheim's police chief would oversee 600 employees, including more than 400 sworn officers and other police authorities.
According to a city spokeswoman, the city is reviewing more than two dozen applications for the position. The recruitment closed on Tuesday.
Roseville-based Bob Murray & Associates, who is contracted by the city to handle the recruitment, is holding initial interviews, with final interviews done by the city.
The police chief's salary range is $174,880 to $288,552, city officials said.
Anaheim spokeswoman Natalie Aguirre said the public input is part of the hiring process and would play a role in setting priorities for a new chief.
"What we've heard so far validates concerns we've already identified, including homelessness issues related to public safety, traffic, and continued efforts to fight crime in our city," said Aguirre to Spectrum News.
The city manager appoints the chief of police, and the city council ratifies the employment agreement.
Aguirre said the city anticipates a decision by late summer or early fall.