New Police Chief Raising morale at Rialto P.D. (Daily Bulletin 082406)

This is the same story that was printed on the sun, however this is on a different paper, The Daily Bulletin and the SB Sun must be owned by the same people. I mean that the article is the same word for word. The only thing that is different is that the Title is changed to protect the writer from copy write violations..LOL..

The title on this one has me laughing because the Chief is supposed to be sworn in on Sept. 4 during the city council meeting and they have him already adding to the morale of the department. That is great!! The man has not gotten a paycheck or at least we don't know that he has gotten a paycheck from the city yet, and he is a morale builder from way back..that is great..

Kling is doing a great job and if you don't beleive that just ask the newspaper that doesn't even know that he has not started working there yet, becuase they copied the story word for word from the other competition. LOL

BSRanch

New Police Chief Raising Morale at Rialto P.D.
By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer, Daily Bulletin 082406

RIALTO -- The city's new police chief was inspired as a child to become a police officer by watching episodes of "Adam-12," the police television series of the '60s and '70s.

By 14, Mark Kling was a police Explorer, and by his mid-20s, he was an officer.

Now 48 -- he turns 49 on Friday -- and with a touch of gray in his hair, Kling has just taken up the task of rebuilding a police department that faced the threat of elimination by the City Council in September.

"We're going to take the department back to the premier status it deserves," Kling said in an interview Wednesday, adding that there is a core group of police employees who will not allow the department to fall apart.

Only months ago, officers were leaving the department en masse following the troubled tenure of former Chief Michael Meyers and his deputy Arthur Burgess. After a legal battle, the council reversed itself in June, adopting an ordinance preserving the department.

Now, according to department statistics from June, crime is on track to be down by 13.5 percent this year, response times are down and the City Council has provided the department with funds for new vehicles and a reorganization of the department's hierarchy.

Andrew Pilcher, the president of the Rialto Police Benefit Association, said morale is up among the officers. "We're looking towards the future," he said.

City leaders have nothing but positive things to say about the new chief, who has a doctorate from the University of La Verne.

City leaders say Kling, who started work on Monday, was hired to continue rebuilding and strengthening the department. Tuesday was the last day on the job for outgoing Chief Frank Scialdone and Deputy Chief Tim Ousley.

Kling will be officially sworn in at the next City Council meeting on Sept. 5. City Administrator Henry Garcia chose Kling from two candidates that a seven-member interview committee recommended.

Scialdone praised Kling as a good communicator with valuable experience as the former chief of police in Baldwin Park, which came close to closing that city's police department before Kling took over in 2001.

"I see him as a cop's cop who hasn't forgotten where he came from," Scialdone said.

He also complimented the Rialto police officers for their hard work during a tumultuous period. "They were doing really great police work," he said"

Kling takes over a department on the mend. Since Scialdone and Ousley were installed, morale at the department has gone up, police officials say. Until 2004, the two worked together at the Fontana Police Department, where Scialdone was chief.

One of Kling's first challenges will be to replace the officers who resigned. There are 27 vacancies, which Kling said will take two to three years to fill. He said he also plans to continue the projects Scialdone and Ousley implemented, especially the community-based policing philosophy that will restructure the department and divide the city into three geographical regions. Scialdone used the strategy in Fontana.

Garcia, the city administrator, said rebuilding the department will take three to seven years. He said implementing the new area-commander police patrol concept and department support for renewing the utility user tax will be top priorities for the department.

But he said Kling has the people skills, communication skills and creativity to succeed.

Pilcher said that after a recent meeting with Kling, the department's supervisors had positive feedback about their new chief.

Capt. Michael Taylor of Kling's old department in Baldwin Park called Kling "an inspiring person" "He's just an all-around pretty unique individual," Taylor said. He added, "It was a big loss for the city of Baldwin Park."

Taylor said once Kling became chief, he turned around the department from a "training ground" into a respected department.

Kling said he has been spending his first week learning the city and the department. "The department is in a better condition than I expected it to be when I walked in the door," he said.

He said he is optimistic the department will not fall apart again: "There is no failure option."