By Sarah Elizabeth Villicana, The Porterville Recorder
The beginning of the new year will see ongoing changes within the Porterville Police Department.

Now that he has officially been appointed to head the department, Police Chief Chuck McMillan said he can get the ball rolling on several projects he has been developing with city officials and the heads of neighboring police agencies.

“I can take it easy now emotionally, but physically I'm not slowing down,” McMillan said Friday. “I've got a lot of plans that the public is going to see over the next few months.” “My priority is to recruit qualified, capable people to be police officers,” McMillan said. “My goal is to put more officers on the streets.”

Before the passage of Measure H, which secured funds for increased law enforcement and fire personnel, the department had 47 full-time officers. Recruitment of officers is ongoing. As of Friday, there are 51 sworn officers on active duty.

“I'm going to try to get us to 57 officers within the next few months,” McMillan said. The next swearing-in ceremony, tentatively scheduled for the first week in January, will bring one additional body to the force. A more visible presence on the streets is just a small piece of the plan to combat a surge in gang-related violence and crime, made apparent by a record-setting year for homicides in the Porterville.

“In recent months our guys have done an outstanding job of identifying gangs and going after them aggressively,” McMillan said. Just this month, the Tulare County District Attorney's Office filed charges against three men suspected of conspiring to kill a Porterville 14-year-old in May. All three men were already in custody; two of them jailed in October after city detectives linked them and eight others to an organized crime ring working for the benefit of the Nuestra Familia prison gang.

Other high-profile arrests in recent months resulted in hundreds of pounds of marijuana and a significant amount of methamphetamine seized before it could reach city streets.

Crime prevention and a presence in public schools is another area where McMillan is ready to focus department resources. “Any statistics will tell you the target audience for gang intervention is kids in middle to elementary school,” McMillan said.

During his seven months as interim chief, McMillan said he has been working with other city department heads and a cooperative approach to issues will frame the future of local law enforcement.

Contact Sarah Villicana at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or svillicana@portervillerecorder.com.

This story was published in The Porterville Recorder on Dec. 23, 2006