Exclusive: SLO police chief talks protests, body cams and fatal officer shooting
When tragedy struck on May 10, the San Luis Obispo Police Department’s new chief was in the middle of unpacking after moving halfway across the country.
Rick Scott was hired to lead the Central Coast law enforcement agency after spending six years as assistant police chief in the police department of North Richland Hills, Texas. He served a total of 24 years at the Dallas-area agency.
Scott brings a vision for an inclusive, engaged civic approach to community policing, he told The Tribune in an exclusive interview.
He’ll lead a department with 91.5 half-time and full-time positions, including 61 sworn officers.
Scott was sworn in at the San Luis Obispo City Council’s June 1 meeting, ushering a new era for the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
Over the past two years, the agency has dealt with multiple, high-profile incidents that sparked public controversy and fueled a community divide.
In 2019, former San Luis Obispo Police Chief Deanna Cantrell lost her gun at a local restaurant, resulting in a warrantless search. The same year, a police officer fatally shot a couple’s dog while responding to false report of a burglary; the city later reached a $70,000 settlement with the dog’s owners.
The police department courted further controversy over its response to Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, using teargas to disperse one group of protesters and arresting local organizer Tianna Arata and other activists in connection to a march on Highway 101.
Scott was set to officially begin his new job May 13, but he ended up being called to action a few days earlier.
He was just getting to know his new surroundings when he received a call about the May 10 shooting death of San Luis Obispo police Det. Luca Benedetti.
Benedetti was shot and killed by suspect Edward Giron as he and five other officers served a search warrant on Giron’s apartment related to what officials say were several commercial burglaries. Giron, who officials say was also shot during an exchange of gunfire, died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
San Luis Obispo police Det. Steve Orozco was injured in the shooting.
Scott first spoke publicly as San Luis Obispo’s police chief at a May 11 news conference. He also spoke at a candlelight vigil and a funeral service, where he issued words of consolation during a period of mourning.
“This is not how a chief wants to begin his tenure of service,” San Luis Obispo city manager Derek Johnson said at the May 11 news conference. “But I can say with absolute certainty, we are fortunate to have him at the helm at this time.”
Scott recently sat down with The Tribune to discuss his approach to policing as he begins his tenure as San Luis Obispo’s top law enforcement official. His responses have been edited for length.
Q: What has it been like to start your job under such tragic circumstances?
A: It was very clear to me what I needed to do and what my role was — to be with my team and my (police) family, even though I hadn’t met most of them. Thank goodness I was able to be here for the agency. But this is not a page out of the chief’s how-to manual. We really went into new territory.
Luca Benedetti was a great officer, a great man, a great family man. He is so indicative of many of the employees that we have here. All of our employees are great in their own way and he was special in the things he did.
There are lots of great things that officers do that people often don’t hear about. Luca is indicative of the quality and character of people doing this job. I hope the community saw these are people that wear this uniform and this badge and they grieve just like everybody else. In my viewpoint, you were really seeing people at their best.
Q: What’s your philosophy or approach to policing?
A: I believe strongly in community policing. I think that community policing continues to evolve. Every community has their own version of what community policing needs to be and that’s tailored and refined for the community... I can’t sit here and tell you what approach is going to be successful in SLO. I need to continue to talk with the community and develop that approach with our staff. All of our decisions should really stem from improving the quality of life and sanctity of life. That should drive everything that we do.
The other part is building human capital and looking for positive interactions with most of the citizens. For most people, their only interaction with law enforcement is probably being pulled over and getting a ticket or when other bad things happen. I’ll continue to promote the idea of building positive interactions with citizens on days when they’re not in crisis, and they’re not having the worst day of their life. It takes effort, time, resources, but it should be fundamental.
We have to draw upon that community capital, so we’re given the benefit of the doubt that we’re acting in the best interest (of the public) when things happen. If we make a mistake, we need to say we made a mistake, and to be transparent about it, and start working to overcome that and fix the problem. If we do good things, let’s talk about the good things.
Q. How do you envision interacting with underrepresented groups in the community, including minority residents?
A: So much of this is already in place with established groups such as Police and Community Together (PACT) and SLOPD’S Roundtable, which is great.
When I refer to PACT 2.0, what I’m really looking to do is to evaluate the groups that are participating, or the groups that are not represented that should be, and how we’re engaging with these groups. I’m committed to re-engaging and who’s going to be on there and who’s not.
My goal is everybody who wants to have a seat at the table will have that opportunity. We maybe need to go back to the drawing board and just set some of the boundaries on how we’re going to interact and when and respond to feedback. Some of those expectations need to be codified and visited with the (PACT) group. So, we will get back together and decide what that looks like.
Q: What are your thoughts on the police’s response to homelessness, substance abuse and mental health?
A: These are incredibly complex sociological problems that we’re seeing across the country. This is not a police problem that we’re going to be able to solve ourselves. We need those support mechanisms to be successful.
We need to engage (the San Luis Obispo County government) with the resources available to the county. We have two incredible programs in (the city of) SLO — our Community Action Team and our Mobile Crisis Unit that was just set up with the fire department — and we are sending non-sworn individuals out to address these issues.
The data shows we’re heading in the right direction. I think we have more work to do, just as the (new two-year) budget was adopted. We have another social worker who’s going to double the size of our CAT team (to a total of two social workers). I think that’s the model that we need to continue. But that’s not a defunding conversation. That’s a funding and resource conversation because these things cost money. Could we augment our resources in the future? I don’t know, but I’m proud take that step with community support.
Police have been saying for many many years that we need to invest in social services, that some of these calls we’re going on don’t need to be a police calls to begin with. We’re not experts in mental health. We’re not experts on solving homelessness. I’m confident we can create a model here that other agencies could look to us on and adopt.
Q: Do you support a regional campsite or additional facility that provides an alternative to San Luis Obispo’s 40 Prado Homeless Services Center?
A: The goal is to get people connected with a resource. That could be a mechanism or tool, obviously. There are challenges with the public safety aspect of campsites, and really just the health aspect of that. They’re not usually in the most sanitary of conditions. So that could be a possibility; I think more research needs to be done on that topic specifically.
Q: What experience from policing in Texas might you bring to SLO?
A: I was fortunate to have a wonderful agency in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and so we took influences from all the cities around us. ... Of course, being a metropolitan area, we saw lots of big city issues within our community. I would look to lean on policy management, and I have a lot of policy management on my resume, as well as best practices and community team-building.
Beat management or district management is good to watch. I’m still exploring what that would look like here, but essentially it’s making sure that our officers are in a familiar area and that they stay in an area. I think that’s very beneficial for them to learn who the residents and businesses are and the problems that the neighborhood is suffering. And then you get to work with the neighbors to come up with collaborative solutions to address those problems. If you’re seeing a different officer every night, there’s a tendency for some of that to be lost.
Q: Do you have to overcome any stereotypes, coming from Texas?
A: I do tell people I don’t have a ranch and I don’t have a cowboy hat or an oil well or cattle. Let’s just get that out of the way. ... If you consider where I came from, it’s a lot like this area. It’s highly progressive, highly metropolitan. ... Coming here in a way is a break from that stereotype. What was most attractive about the SLO job is the community’s willingness to work with the department and us with them. I know I can use my background to do great things.
Q: Why did you leave your police department in Texas?
A: Everything that I saw on TV over the past 18 months, it was abundantly clear to me what my role was going to be moving forward. I wanted to be off the sidelines in the game making a difference in law enforcement. We need people that are change agents that are going to do these things that are in line with the community’s expectations and our own. I’ve seen many people retiring in law enforcement that aren’t ready to start over. I am.
We will push it to the next level. I can’t think of a better place to do that that here. We’ll see incidents, all across the country, but great things are coming out of California and the state is ahead of the curve.
Q: How can police find ways to interact in a positive way with the community?
A: Getting out of the car and stopping to talk to people to say “Hi” and, say, throw a ball with a kid is highly effective. Just looking for those opportunities when it’s not a service call is fundamental. Going from call to call can make it difficult to do that. But it leads to job satisfaction. Just talking to people repeatedly who are having the worst day of their life has a compounding effect. Just to break up that cycle is good for officers. I’m sure that’s happening, but from my end it’s a reminder to do that.
Q: How do you prevent police abuse of power?
A: You’ve got to know your people. You’ve got to stay engaged. A lot of it falls to the first-line supervisor. I don’t know if they’re having a bad day or a bad month or a year or whatever an officer’s home situation may be. But good first-line supervisors stay engaged to see how their officers are doing. We welcome the public to let us know how our officers are doing.
If you have a bad contact with an officer on a traffic stop, it may seem unnecessary to let us know about that, but that could be good information if three other citizens are telling us the same thing they had a similar problem.
We have an incredible peer support program here as well and our officers can talk to people outside of law enforcement if they’re struggling or having a home life situation. You have to care about one another like a family to give the resources they need. Happy, healthy officers provide the highest quality of services.
Q: What’s your position on the release of body camera footage? Do you foresee any changes to current city policy?
A: I don’t have any specific changes in mind. I expect this to be an ongoing conversation. I think body cameras are great. We’re still figuring out what’s reasonable and what’s necessary when you’re talking about releasing a video. My only caution to that is, as great as the videos are, very rarely do you ever see the entire video, especially when the media puts it together for a story for 15 seconds or so. It’s very important to provide the detail around what we’re seeing.
Sometimes a release of video can be inflammatory or polarizing. I’m a huge proponent of releasing a video when we’re able to do that, but it sometimes may move more slowly that people want. A lot of times, especially in a weapon discharge incident, those cases are handled generally by the Sheriff’s Office or (District Attorney’s Office) and they have protocols when it’s pertinent to their investigation and it still may be under investigation or they don’t want to bias a jury pool. I will always release video whenever it can be done legally, morally and ethically.
Q: Do you have any thoughts on the so-called Thin Blue Line flag, which some consider offensive? How should people best support police?
A: Any symbol that’s out there, someone will disagree with it or not like it. I think we saw an incredible outpouring of support after the loss of Det. Benedetti and that’s something we hadn’t seen in a long time and that lifted up our officers to show people do like us and support us. Do we need that every weekend? No. The best way we can support each other’s needs is for people to be kind, compassionate, empathetic, and that goes both ways.
You can certainly disagree (with policing decisions), and we have mechanisms to voice those disagreements, but for people just to stop and say “Hi” or just wave at an officer, that goes a long way when officers are out on duty.
I don’t need a Thin Blue Line sticker on your car to know that you support me. The flags and the symbolism have nothing to do with community support. If you want to support your police department, just be kind and compassionate. It’s not an us versus them (situation). I don’t look for ways to build walls between us and the community.
Q: What’s the best way to police protests?
A: I think a lot has been learned from (last summer’s protests). I wasn’t here yet. But I’m confident in the work the city did to review that. I’ve read the after-action report and it’s a comprehensive report. They did their due diligence. They spent a lot of time and energy and money in reviewing that. They did their due diligence, and that would be a true tragedy if we didn’t learn something from that.
Q: Will there be any changes in the way search warrants are conducted in the wake of Luca Benedetti’s death?
A: It’s premature for me to speak on that since that particular case is under investigation. We have an expectation and responsibility to make our community safe and search warrants are part of that process. Trying and pursuing criminals and conducting search warrants is part of what we do. There’s not a bright line sometimes between people committing crimes and people with mental illness. There is some overlap. We will spend a great deal of time looking at this incident. We’re still waiting on a report from the (San Luis Obispo County) Sheriff’s (Office). We have our own internal affairs work to do.
Having a tragedy and not identifying areas that we learn would be a true tragedy. There’s more work to be done.
This story was originally published June 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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