The city hosted an open house at Heber Valley Elementary to introduce residents to Branden Russell, Heber City Police Department’s first lieutenant, and Parker Sever, the chief of police in Hanford, California.
Russell has been in law enforcement for 13 years, a member of the Heber force for most of that time. He has risen in the ranks to become third-in-command on the force, and serves as its SWAT commander. He is also the supervisor for a multi-jurisdictional major crimes task force.
Sever has been with the Hanford police department for 26 years, serving as police chief since 2014. He was named Kings County Officer of the Year, and has overseen his department’s $13 million budget for the last 16 years.
Russell, who isn’t quite 40 years old, touted his youth as an asset he would bring to the position.
"I have a long time left in the sense that I'm not here for a few years, I'm here for the long haul," he told KPCW. "I've got the energy and the passion for this job to continue to move us forward and take us from good to great."
Sever, meanwhile, said he’s a year away from retirement with the Hanford force. But he said he would likely serve for about seven more years if given the position in Heber. He said his family has been looking to move to Utah, and this job would allow him to continue doing what he loves.
"If I could be there and be a cop and help that community, become embedded in the community and get to know the residents, and then eventually retire and live there, that’d just be a dream," he told KPCW.
The open house began with short presentations from each candidate, followed by a question and answer session with the approximately 50 people in attendance. Topics ranged from department transparency, maintaining adequate funding for police resources, how to handle inappropriate behavior from police on social media, and upholding due process for officers under investigation.
Alfonso Flores, president of the Heber Valley Rotary Club, asked how the two would balance the need to uphold the law while compassionately navigating cultural differences and language barriers with the city’s Hispanic population.
Russell said the Heber City Police Department previously would arrest anyone for driving without a license, regardless of race. He said that was a mistake which has since been corrected.
"We quickly educated ourselves and changed our tactics," he said. "We realized that not everybody, at the time, could get a driver's license who didn't speak English. And we decided that we were going to move towards enforcement of education."
Russell said warnings are often more productive in that regard. Both Russell and Sever said officers on their respective forces who speak Spanish are given extra financial incentives.
Sever added that he leaves enforcing immigration law to federal authorities, while he focuses on enforcing local laws.
"It’s important that we get rid of that fear so that they're also willing to report crimes that happen to them to us," he said. Because there's some crimes not getting reported that are serious crimes, because they're afraid of being arrested."
Flores told KPCW more trust needs to be built between police and the Hispanic community. As a court interpreter, he says he has observed racial profiling in Heber, though the problem has been improving in recent years.
"In court, there is always one that says, 'They didn't have a reason to pull me over. They just pulled me over because they saw I’m Hispanic and then they found out something that I did wrong. And that's why I'm getting a ticket,'" he said.
Flores said he was impressed by both candidates.
"In my mind, it comes to, are we going to hire the local guy, or the new guy?" he said.
For help in making that decision, Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco asked for feedback from those in attendance. But she told KPCW public input won’t be the only consideration. She said the lengthy vetting process would continue with three more rounds of interviews on Wednesday.
"They're really being thoroughly vetted, by the department, by the public, by the city council, by myself, by the chief," she said.
Franco will give her recommendation to the city council at its next meeting on Sept. 5. At that time, she said she will also recommend the city’s public safety building be named after current chief Dave Booth.
