Atascadero’s new police chief helped former department tackle gang violence, ‘dysfunction’
The current police chief of King City will be the next to lead the Atascadero Police Department, the city announced Wednesday.
Bob Masterson, who has been the top officer for the city of 14,000 people about 130 miles southwest of Fresno, will take over for former Atascadero Police Chief Jerel Haley, who retired in October after nine years with he department.
Haley was hired as the agency’s top officer in 2011.
Following Masterson’s City Council confirmation on Tuesday, city manager Rachelle Rickard said in a news release that the city undertook a extensive nationwide recruitment process to fill the position after Haley announced his upcoming retirement.
“Bob is the right person to lead the police department at this time,” Rickard wrote in the news release. “He is committed to continuing the professional development of the members of the Atascadero Police Department, and ensuring that high standards of conduct are a priority.”
She called Masterson “a professionally recognized police executive with experience spanning over 34 years in small and mid-sized law enforcement agencies.”
“He has organizational leadership experience and a proven community outreach background that are both key to success in the chief’s role,” she continued. “His experience also demonstrates a history of building community relationships and business partnerships to foster trust and cooperation between the members of the department and the community.”
Masterson began his law enforcement career with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, where he was hired in 1986 as a deputy and rose to the rank of police lieutenant. While with that agency, he also served as a detective, internal affairs sergeant and leader of a gang suppression unit.
Masterson then served as director of a faith-based nonprofit organization that provides gang prevention and other services to at-risk youth, and was police chief for the College of Sequoias Community College District.
Prior to Masterson taking over as chief, the King City Police Department was an embattled agency grappling with a high homicide rate and recovering from the controversial arrests of its former chief and other officers in an illegal impound scheme. The Monterey County District Attorney’s Office said at the time that towed vehicles from police interactions were sold or given to officers when the owners couldn’t pay the fees.
Under Masterson’s leadership, the department has stayed mostly out of the news other than gaining attention for the installation of city surveillance cameras and mandating the use of handgun-mounted cameras on every officer’s gun.
Atascadero city officials say that since 2016, Masterson played an integral role in that city’s plan to end youth violence with “dramatic results, helping to reduce gang violence and improve crime statistics by a tremendous measure.”
In addition, Atascadero officials say, Masterson greatly improved community relations “as well as department morale and turning it from dysfunction into the professional organization it is today.”
He is expected to begin his new role in Atascadero in early January.
