New chief aims for more police visibility
Growing up in Missouri City, Richard Ramirez has fond memories of officer
To Richard Ramirez, his appointment as Stafford’s police chief felt like a long time coming.
It had been his goal since his first day of peace officer courses at the University of Houston in 1988.
After serving as assistant police chief for three years and interim police chief since October 2015, Ramirez hit the ground running when he got the job April 20.
Despite a tight city budget because of the oil downturn and a desire to stay within the same $6.74 million department budget as last year, Ramirez has immediate plans to add four patrol officers to his staff, which includes 53 sworn positions.
In the long term, he plans to implement programs to boost police visibility in the community.
Ramirez, 48, can trace back his desire to go into law enforcement to fond memories of when he was growing up in Missouri City and the neighborhood patrol officer, Elmo Cepeda, would pretend to use police radar to measure Ramirez’s speed on a bicycle.
Years later, Ramirez and Cepeda worked together at the Missouri City department.
Ramirez was there for about two years before he got a job in 1994 as a patrol officer for the Stafford department.
It was his third time applying for a job with Stafford. He’s worked in the city ever since.
Ramirez has served as gang investigator, detective, division commander over operations and assistant police chief.
In October, Mayor Leonard Scarcella appointed him interim police chief after longtime chief Bonny Krahn retired.
Krahn was in the job for 45 years.
“He was my choice because I felt he was the most appropriate person and the best qualified person to fill Bonny Krahn’s shoes,” Scarcella said, citing Ramirez’s 23-year tenure at the Stafford Police Department.
Ramirez plans to continue the family atmosphere that Krahn fostered in the department.
“I walk down the halls, I know every officer by name,” Ramirez said. “For the most part, I know their families.”
Over the next few weeks, Ramirez will also see through the implementation of body cameras, a process which began under Krahn.
The department will request approval from city council to fund 35 cameras, at a proposed cost of about $15,700 to the city. Grant money will cover the remaining $62,700.
Ramirez expects that patrol officers will start using them in June.
Ramirez’s immediate challenge is to present a budget to Stafford’s mayor and City Council that would add four patrol positions as a response to the city’s population growth.
“Our community wants more officers in the neighborhoods,” Ramirez said. “But I’ve got to figure out how to do that and stay within a prudent budget.”
He’s still not sure how he’s going to pull it off but plans to present a proposed budget to the mayor during the first week of July.
The mayor and city council will vote on the budget Oct. 1.
Remembering how Cepeda’s accessibility inspired him to become a police officer, Ramirez said his overall goal is to make Stafford’s police officers visible and integral parts of neighborhoods and commercial areas.
In October, Ramirez started rotating Stafford’s patrol officers through neighborhoods, assigning two or three officers to each community every day.
When patrol officers were not responding to emergency calls, they were introducing themselves to residents and business owners and employees, Ramirez said.
He’s also launched an 18-month project for the Stafford Police Department to gain the Texas Police Chief’s Association’s best practices accreditation.
To gain the accreditation, the department must review its policies, procedures, equipment, facilities and operations to be in compliance with the association’s best practices.
These policies include when to begin or end a vehicle chase or when to use a firearm.
Apart from inspiring pride in his officers, the accreditation has benefits for community outreach, Ramirez said.
“If we say to the community, ‘Look, we have met the best practices that the state recognizes,’ I think that builds credibility for us,” Ramirez said. “And it builds trust in the community.”
Ramirez beat out 66 other applicants for the job and will have a salary of $120,000 per year, Scarcella said.