Moab City Police Chief Jared Garcia on This Week in Moab

During his first week as Moab City Police Chief, Jared Garcia has been doing a lot of listening. “I want to make good decisions. I want to make sure our police department’s moving in the right direction,” he says. “The only way to do that is to listen to people. And that’s what I’m trying to do right now.” Learn about Chief Garcia and his hopes for the police department including hiring, best practices, department culture and more. It’s host Christy Williams-Dunton on the latest This Week in Moab! Tune in. 

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Read the interview transcript below!

Christy Williams-Dunton 

The show is This Week in Moab, I’m your host for the day, Christy Williams-Dunton, and it’s a pleasure – truly – to welcome to the studio and to the Moab airwaves here at KZMU, Moab’s new chief of police, Jared Garcia. Jared, thank you for coming up today.

Chief Jared Garcia 

Thank you for having me.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Do you prefer Chief Garcia?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Jared is fine.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Thank you very much for coming up. And welcome to Moab. This is day five on the job?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yes, it is.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

How’s it going?

Chief Jared Garcia 

It’s going good. Yes, it’s been a hectic week. But people are so welcoming. And I feel like it’s going pretty, pretty well so far.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

You actually come from a storied career, you are honored with being the International Association of Chiefs of Police 40 under 40 award. So you have been involved in multi-agency efforts aimed to crack down on crime in Salt Lake neighborhoods. And so you’ve got about 20 years of experience. Is that so?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, just short of like, I’ll hit my 20-year mark here in August. So a couple months short of that.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

And so from Salt Lake originally?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Born and raised in actually Kearns if anybody who knows where that is. The west side of Salt Lake [City].

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Okay, great. And then your family, you have wife and kids? Yeah,

Chief Jared Garcia 

I do. Yeah. Been married to my wife for 13 years. And we have two small children. And so they’ll, they’ll become a part of this community, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’re in the process of kind of transitioning from Salt Lake to here, but really looking forward to it.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Now, there’s so much to be said about what kind of journey it is to come to Moab and find a house and develop a life. You found some housing? That’s awesome.

Chief Jared Garcia 

It is. It was a stressful couple of weeks. But we’re obviously grateful that we found something and I think that was probably one of the most important things is being able to get my kids settled. You know, it’s impactful for them to move them but hopefully get them settled in where they can meet some new friends and get settled into school and not have to stress so much about the big move.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

And it is a big move. You said yes to the challenge of coming to Moab amid many long and … nationwide scrutinies. The big eye on what Moab has been doing and internal struggles within the department for quite some time. Not just the Gabby Petito and [Brian] Laundrie tragedy, but several others that we could name that has me wondering in light of all of that with domestic violence being rather in this bright spotlight now…talk to me for a minute about what you’ve said ‘yes’ to by coming here at this time, when there are such concerns, both in the department and more broadly, about this issue about keeping peace and feeling safe as how are we treating our people, our community?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Sure. Well, first of all, as far as the challenges that you outlined, you know, I think that it’s important first, that somebody out there decides that they need to view that as an opportunity. And that’s how I viewed it. Things are never as broken as people like to portray, they’re never probably as good as people like to portray. But in this situation, I really did view it as an opportunity. I’ve had such a awesome career with the Department of Public Safety, I feel like those opportunities have prepared me for this to take on these challenges and, and just take it take a new look at the department. I really do view it as a fresh start, not only for me, but for all those who work with for the Moab Police Department, for the community. I know that Moab has been under the spotlight, but somebody has to take on those challenges at some point and really, really dive into the police department. And I thought to myself, why not me? I do view it as an opportunity, I think that there are a lot of great things that we can accomplish.

I also, after being here for five days, I know that’s not very long [but] I am very, very impressed with officers that we do have. I know that things are not perfect, but they do deserve a great deal of credit for sticking through these tough times. And they’ve done that because they care about the police department, they care about their community, and they care about our profession. And it’s really, really been evident to me just in the first few days. As far as those broader challenges specific, you know, to domestic violence, or some of the things that have brought scrutiny to the department. Moab police department these challenges are not exclusive to them. Law enforcement as a whole, it’s gotten younger, there’s less people that want to join the profession. And because we’re hiring newer officers, younger officers, people that are newer to the profession, they’re probably a little less experienced, and it takes its toll on all law enforcement agencies. As a law enforcement leader, I recognize that and it’s important that we really focus on the basics that the law enforcement officers have to do. I call it our ‘core competencies.’ We really have to be excellent at the things that we do 95% of the time. And then we continue to build upon those things. And really, domestic violence, unfortunately, those are incidences that we do respond to frequently. And they are very dynamic situations. And it’s really up to us to make sure officers are trained properly so they can respond to make good decisions.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

In light of that wasn’t there a response training recently? Or are there efforts that are being taken to really support officers of any age to come at this situation from a more trauma informed place?

Chief Jared Garcia  

Yeah, I think those discussions have been occurring for many, many years. I’m not aware of what training occurred before I got here, but I do know that in the coming weeks, I will be taking a really hard look at the policies and procedures. I will make sure that our officers are properly trained, ensure that we are conducting lethality assessments. I know we are doing that, but just make sure that after we conduct lethality assessments, we engage the appropriate resources, whether or not that other social workers, victim advocates, and then service providers in our area or where our victims may be residing to make sure that there’s a safety plan in place, make sure that they’re being guided through the criminal justice system. Because that can be traumatic for victims of crime. And just really making sure that we’re taking a broad approach to those situations and make sure that, again, victims are being really taken care of.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

You mentioned something that I was really glad that you did, indicating to me that there is sort of an overarching system of if not values, then… you put it as core competencies. There are some things that are just the most important. What are they?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Well, so many things. If you think about what the community expects from law enforcement, it’s really everything. If you think about our response, it’s typically probably one of the worst days of people’s lives if they’re calling law enforcement for help. But sometimes our interaction is just we’re walking down the street, and we’re having just a healthy conversation. And so the core competencies really start with how we present ourselves. I really expect for our officers to be professional police officers, which includes how we engage people. Everybody deserves to be treated with respect. So that’s a core competency – how we communicate with people with the public, how we engage, how we conduct basic investigations, traffic stops, having a clear understanding of law criminal procedures.

There’s so much that we expect of our law enforcement officers and we really just need to take a really basic look at what we do every single day. And then as officers grow in their careers, they gain more experience more time on the job, more training and we can really dive into what roles they want to fulfill within the police department, some people are made to be investigators, some are made to be patrol officers, some more community based maybe school resource officers, maybe some people want to be the chief of police. So really, it’s my job to make sure that I have a clear understanding of the people that work within the department, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, what their interests are, and really guide them through their careers and hopefully prepare somebody in that police department to take on my job when I move on someday.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Some long-term vision, that’s encouraging…I don’t know how you would put it, but old school me feels like what happened to peace officers? How is the keeping of the peace or the disturbing of the peace and the identifying as peace officers…Does that still exist in that core competency in terms of, you know, ‘the why’ of the work?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, of course. I think that what happens is specifically when you’re so shorthanded, or you’re trying to you’re constantly trying to play catch up – there are so many tasks that people don’t realize have to occur within a police department, whether it’s maintaining training, certifications, making sure that reports are written properly…But if you don’t have the time to review, a investigative file or a police report, then those things can fall by the wayside, and they just, you know, they can get rubber stamped. And that’s what we have to guard against, you know? And the other the other aspect of that is, we don’t want every law enforcement encounter to be because somebody broke the law or because they needed our help, they were in a crisis, we would hope that we can find more time to be to have positive engagement with our community, just to have those casual conversations to check in on business owners, to be visible for those people who are visiting the City of Moab  and the surrounding areas. And so I think that’s really my goal is to really create more opportunities, more efficiencies within the department, create opportunities for officers to better engage the community, find criminal justice solutions that don’t always involve incarceration, although sometimes that is necessary. But really just be forward thinking in our approach, be more community oriented. And then when it is appropriate to take enforcement action, we know that there’s a time and a place for us to do that as well.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Thank you for shedding a little bit of a lens on the kind of demographic of who we’ve got there – kind of a young force and it’s been difficult to retain it, in part because of the rising costs and turnover. So understaffing. How big of an issue is that do you feel?

Chief Jared Garcia 

I think the Moab Police Department is significantly understaffed right now. Honestly, if I was to break down my priorities for you right now, that is priority number one – hiring officers. And not only hiring them, but retaining them and then again, getting them the proper amount of training, experience, guidance from leadership, that that is the priority. You can have all the goals in the world, but if you don’t have people to accomplish those goals, and it’s all for nothing. And so that’s really again, priority number one is hiring people. And then making sure we’re establishing a culture and an environment that people want to stay organically not where it’s forced. Or they realize it’s a great place to work, it’s a great city to work and we’re accomplishing great things. And I believe we will do that. It’s just going to take a little bit of time.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

You only got here a week ago. You physically weren’t here before a week ago. Amazing. So fresh. And yet you’ve been listening to people probably coming to you just listening – 14 hours a day, I’d expect – hearing from people from the community, new coworkers, people from the city. What are people telling you that they’re most worried about? I’m sure they’ve been peppering you with ‘please look at this, it’s key.’ What are you hearing?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, so many things. I think really, I’ve felt a great deal of excitement for a change. And I don’t mean that as a negative towards the previous police chief or administration. Like I said, I view this as a fresh start moving forward. But I think, you know, people are just really interested to see where we take the Moab Police Department. I think they’re really looking forward to some new leadership and new ideas within the police department in the city. And, I just really appreciate how welcoming people have been. I know that everybody has different needs and different ideas of what law enforcement provides. And that’s really where I’m at right now is just kind of the listening phase and getting to know people and understand not only what the needs are internally within the police department, but the community needs, as well as the other stakeholders, the other government officials, the district attorneys, the local attorneys, judges, service providers, you name it. Over the next probably few months, I’m going to get to meet people and get to understand what their needs are. And hopefully, that’ll help me to provide a better service from a public safety standpoint.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Are you interested in hearing from people? Or are you saying, ‘give me a minute’…As we say, it’s been not just national attention within the community for quite some time, turmoil, things not quite on the up and up is how it is felt. I know that this community is really interested in having an open interface.

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, I’m not in a phase where I think people need to hold off if someone in the community has something that they want to bring to my attention. I’m all ears, I have an open-door policy if someone wants to come and talk to me. And we’re already hoping to create opportunities for me to engage the public, engage people, because that’s important. I mean, I really want to make good decisions. I want to make sure our police departments moving in the right direction, but the only way to do that is to listen to people. And that’s what I’m trying to do right now is, like I said, it’s important for me to listen to the officers internally and find out the things that they’ve faced and I hope to find more time in the coming weeks to really sit down and dial into that. But also we are serving the community that  resides here, the community that visits here, and there are so many people that have different perspectives. And it’s our job to listen.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Well, it is with some seasoning that you come to this position. You want to talk a little bit about your enforcement commitments and a little bit of history about where you come from?

Chief Jared Garcia 

I’ve worked for the Department of Public Safety for almost 20 years. And that includes the Utah Highway Patrol, where I started as a young patrol officer in Salt Lake County and worked on the DUI squad. But I spent the majority of my career at the State Bureau of Investigation. So one of one of my – probably some of my greatest moments were as a sergeant on the Salt Lake area gang project on the gang unit up there. And every night was an adventure. Really my job was to identify the most violent, dangerous person in the community, and then we would go locate them. So, you know, that was those were some very, very exciting times. And in stark contrast, from what I find out here in Moab, I don’t think there’s the gang the problem that we had up in Salt Lake.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Well, let’s find some wood. And we’re just gonna knock [on it]. Because there are some things that make it at risk. You’ve seen some of those reports about ACES, adverse childhood experiences and some of the risks associated with the rural areas. So [Moab] is warm, open – yes. And at risk. So I’m sure you’re going to be working with an interagency effort to try and bring greater community health forward that way.

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, I really look forward to partnering continuing to partner with the Utah Highway Patrol, the Department of Public Safety and, and the sheriff’s office, I’ve had a great relationship with the Grand County Sheriff’s Office over the years working for the state. And I really, really hope to continue to build upon those relationships. And I understand there will be a new sheriff at the end of the year and I look forward to building a relationship with him. But in the meantime, I hope to to find some time to sit down with the current sheriff and pick his brain and see what he would like to see from the Moab police department as well. But as far as those other challenges, I think there are so many things that can be done. Again, it takes it takes relationships, it takes collaboration, but I think if we take a forward-thinking approach to some of these scenarios, we can really make a difference. Again, it doesn’t always have to involve enforcement action. I think that’s one thing I learned during Operation Rio Grande. While there are a lot of people that that  is the solution is enforcement of laws and and arrest, there are also opportunities for us to engage through multidisciplinary teams and find solutions before people get involved in a criminal justice system. So I hope as a police chief, I can bring a good balance to that.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Thank you because there is this point, isn’t there, where it becomes criminal. But then there’s a pretty broad set of behaviors that are not quite that that just need perhaps a little care. Is that so?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. There’s a term I like to use, it’s ‘high utilizers’ in the community. And what I mean by that those are maybe households or individuals that require more response, whether it’s from police services, or medical service, EMS.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Seekhaven, or Child Protective Services…

Chief Jared Garcia 

Exactly. But in those scenarios, when you talk about that extra standard of care, those are opportunities for us maybe to use that or implement that multi-disciplinary approach and take a proactive approach and go out to those individuals and maybe conduct assessments and help find them the solutions that they need prior to making arrests. You know, it’s the same kind of approach to relationships, right? You shouldn’t build relationships when there’s a crisis, you need to build them far before that. So when there is a crisis, we can better work together. And I think I view those scenarios the same. If we can get out, take a proactive approach, then maybe we can make a difference in one or two people’s lives.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Great. Perhaps more than that – hope so.

Chief Jared Garcia 

Hopefully.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

It’s been a months-long search for the new chief of police. He’s here and here in the studio, day five on the job, Chief Jared Garcia, whose wife and kids will be coming down here just a little bit, and probably starting school…So welcome to the family. Welcome to Moab. And if people have something that they really need to connect with you about, whether it’s a feeling about their community, or perhaps a problem that they’ve long seen about the force, something they’d like to see change about the force? How can they get ahold of you?

Chief Jared Garcia 

Yeah obviously, we live in a small community, they’re welcome to come down to the police station and come meet with me in person, they can reach out to us through our through the police email. And I’m like really looking forward to kind of creating more opportunities for people to engage. Whether that’s through social media, I know that’s how people prefer to communicate nowadays. Give me a little bit of time, and I’ll create more opportunities for people to reach out. But in the meantime, they’re welcome to call the police station, come in and visit me and reach out. I will be as responsive as I possibly can. And I’m looking forward to hearing the concerns that people have.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Wonderful. Well, listen here, you know, KZMU is a platform for you can talk to a lot of people at once. It’s super efficient, if there is a message that you need to get out, feel free to make this place, a way that you can communicate concerns or important information that they need to know. And come on back to KZMU anytime.

Chief Jared Garcia 

I appreciate it. I appreciate the platform and the opportunity to meet with you. I would before I leave like to add that it is National Police Week that started yesterday. And so I would just encourage members of the public to if they see one of our sheriffs, one of our troopers, one of our Moab City police officers, just take a moment and take them they really do care about the community. They care about this our profession, and the police department, the people that reside here, the people that visit here. That has been absolutely obvious to me, so please take the time to thank them for everything that they do. They’re wonderful people and they’re here to make your life safe.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

Thank you very much, Chief Garcia. Thanks for coming up.

Chief Jared Garcia 

It’s a pleasure best of luck.

Christy Williams-Dunton 

I feel like you’re going to be pretty busy, sadly, but even so, drop by again.

Chief Jared Garcia

I’ll come by anytime. Thank you so much.