I believe working in public safety is difficult, even with the system’s flaws. Our country’s law enforcement deserve some criticism and scrutiny, just like our politicians. But I’ve seen first hand how working as a police officer can take its toll on someone, especially when there’s no resources to make the job easier. Easy is blaming somebody for a situation they have little control over, it’s harder to look deeper and have a conversation about disagreements.
Working in this small town was the first time I had to speak with police officers regularly. I was a little nervous when the newspaper first asked me to do so, and coming off of the craziness of 2020, I just wanted a normal conversation.
When I first met Jon Walker, he really surprised me. His demeanor behind sunglasses comes off serious, alert. But he shook my hand and congratulated me on my new job at the time. Mr. Walker was so easy to speak with, and made me feel comfortable calling on him when incidents went down. He was also the first person to show up to all the town events, even church services.
He was always kind to me, and when I watched city council members berate him for bringing up issues about the police department, it upset me a little. Of course in a news article, you should not “pick sides”, but I had empathy for struggling police officers working in this tiny town. They were understaffed, underfunded and working with really old technology. I remember a point when an officer said people were calling 911 and being put on hold. Can you imagine?
Mr. Walker was the chief of police for the California City Police Department for about two years, and in that time a murder case was solved, and a major break was made in a national case. But things like that didn’t matter when it came time for the fiscal budget to come around. I remember council members were upset he purchased new badges for the officers (all 12 of them). It was too petty to watch sometimes, so I understood why he was hanging it up.
After the interview, he spoke a little more freely. He shared his frustrations and showed me a police car that looked like scrap metal, and explained a drunk driver had nearly taken someone’s life. When I asked if his family was happy about his retirement, he smiled and said yes they were, excited even. I could relate to that, as my own father was nearing his retirement.
Overall, I think Jon Walker was a good man trying to do the right thing. It was a shame more people in the community could not see it at the time.
Originally published in the Mojave Desert News on May 1, 2022.
CALIFORNIA CITY — California City Police Department Chief Jon Walker announced he will be resigning from his position effective March 31.
The news comes just two years after Walker was appointed to the position, and also marks the fourth city employee to leave Cal City in the last 10 months.
Interim City Manager Anne Ambrose released a statement saying the recruitment process for a new chief will begin soon.
“Chief Walker has had an impeccable law enforcement career, dedicating over three decades of service to the residents of Los Angeles and California City,” Ambrose said. “I am extremely grateful to Chief Walker’s leadership in California City and wish him the best in his endeavors.”
Walker’s public safety career began in 1987 when he was sworn in as a Los Angeles Police Department officer and served over twenty-eight years before retiring as a motor sergeant with the South Traffic Division, supervising a team of 40 officers. During his tenure with LAPD, Walker worked as a narcotics officer, gang officer, motor officer, observer in the air support division, academy instructor, senior lead officer, patrol sergeant, and community relations sergeant before retiring.
Walker was sworn in as the Chief of the California City Police Department on January 14, 2020, following the retirement of Eric Hurtado.
The chief says the decision was his own and he was not forced to resign. However, city politics has begun to take its toll. The police department budget has been cut more than one million dollars since Walker was appointed, and the police force is currently understaffed.
“I think I’ve come in and made a lot of good changes, but its just time for me to move on,” Walker said. “It’s getting weary.”
Walker says he told the city council numerous times that the department needs more resources, but the council has continued to make cuts to the police budget for years.
“I’ve been trying to stress that to them that when we have someone get sick or get injured, immediately we go into crisis mode. We gotta try to cover for those people somehow with overtime or bringing people in on their days off, extending shifts, having the chief handle radio calls,” Walker said.
And though he acknowledges extra work for police is not new to him, he feels more could be done to keep the public and officers safe.
“This is what I do, I’ve been doing it forever, but that’s not where we should be.” Walker said. “That causes my officers to become fatigued, which leads to them to getting sick. Fatigued officers make bad decisions at times or can make bad decisions and that’s going to lead to undesirable outcomes not only for us but for the citizens. So that causes me great concern because I believe our city deserves much more.”
The lack of officers on staff can also lead to dangerous situations when calls are made miles from the police station. With California City’s more than 200 square miles, Walker says it can be overwhelming.
“Have you seen all the new houses they’re building? People are coming in.” Walker said. “It’s changed drastically in the last couple years and it’s going to continue to change. That’s just the people who live here, that doesn’t count the Influx of campers and off-roaders that we have on the weekends. Our population bulges on the weekends particularly during the off roading season. When you have a Thanksgiving weekend with 100,000 extra people in our city and somebody’s got to handle a call way out in the second city, or by Silver Saddle, now I’ve only got one officer in town. That is a recipe for disaster.”
The decision was a tough one for Walker, who has come to love the city. He has made it a point to meet business owners and church pastors to build a better rapport with citizens.
“I wasn’t done. I wanted to continue to reach out and have that community involvement. You know where I came from, LAPD was on the cutting edge of community based policing in my opinion. Their whole thing there was to form partnerships because the truth of the matter is, it’s all of our responsibility.”
Many residents have asked if Walker would be willing to return or pull back his resignation. The chief says he does not believe the city would accept that, and he has come to terms with his decision.
“I’ve never quit anything in my life so this was very difficult for me, but once I made the decision I was pretty much at peace with it.”
Walker made his decision mid-February, and told the city he would stay six-weeks instead of the traditional two-weeks to allow them to find an interim police chief. However, he did not intend to announce his resignation for a few more weeks. And somehow, the information was leaked online.
“It was terrible. I don’t know how that got out to social media, but that’s how they [CCPD] found out. I didn’t tell anyone. That was very hurtful to me, for my department to find out on social media.”
What he’ll miss most? Walker says he has always been amazed at the work the CCPD pulls off each day, and he will miss the camaraderie amongst the group.
“We’re really close. I came from a department of almost ten-thousand, so you didn’t know a lot of people. But here, everybody knows everyone and that’s special. I’ve tried to create a family atmosphere here, and promote that we have to take care of each other. Every week I’m impressed by what these officers do. Where I come from everyone is a specialist, but we don’t have that here. Our guys work from the arrest, to the filing, booking, evidence, going to court, they do it all.”