In his first public presentation Thursday (Sept. 1) since becoming the new Arcadia Police Chief a few weeks ago, Chief Robert Guthrie said at the free monthly Government Affairs Forum of the Arcadia Chamber of Commerce that despite economic cutbacks to the police force and major public venues that rival much larger cities, the City of Arcadia is safe and that the department continues to have strong working relationships with the business community and the school district. <Story continues following 4 1/2-minute video below featuring highlights of Chief Guthrie’s half-hour dialogue with attendees of the Forum…>
Get the Flash Player to see this content. Chief Guthrie said he is currently working to get the current staffing level that is in the 60s up to its budgeted contingent level of 72 within the next few months, but that it will not be going back up to the 80s the department once enjoyed. Some of the staffing cutbacks have resulted in fewer dedicated police for programs like the student DARE drug program, which has been eliminated, and other community service programs, including a space at the Westfield Santa Anita mall, which the Chief hopes to get back at some point. But new technology has offset some of those manpower losses, and services such as social media allow the police to keep businesses as well as residents and visitors informed about police alerts despite the elimination of a targeted Business Alert system once communicated via fax.
Chief Guthrie praised the Chamber’s mission statement of promoting business and a fiscally sound community and said that dovetails with the police department’s objectives to work with businesses to encourage visitors and residents to feel safe and to be enticed to shop and stay in Arcadia in order to keep the community economically sound.
The Chamber’s monthly Government Affairs Forums, led by co-chair persons Pete Ulrich, former Arcadia City Councilman, and Mary Dougherty, former President of the Arcadia School District Board of Education, are open to the public and held on the first Thursday of the month at 8 a.m. in the Chamber conference room at 388 W. Huntington Dr. Each 75-minute Forum includes regular monthly reports from City, County, and State government officials and the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension.
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly will make his first appearance at the Forum at 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, followed on November 3 by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.
RSVPs are appreciated to the Chamber office: 626-447-2159 or info@ArcadiaCaChamber.org.
— By Scott Hettrick
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