California Police Chief Talks Technology, Community Trust

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(TNS) — Newly sworn-in Woodland Police Department Chief Ryan Kinnan sat down with one of his fellow officers in a question-and-answer style video posted to the city police department’s Facebook. He touched on a wide array of important topics regarding community policing, including advancements in technology and building trust with the people across town.

Kinnen brings nearly 25 years of law enforcement experience to Woodland, serving as chief in Auburn. He was hired in November 2018 after working as a lieutenant with the Citrus Heights Police Department in the squad’s Investigative Services Division.

He had been in Citrus Heights since 2006, the year the department was formed, after leaving the Marine Corps. Kinnan was touted by city administration as a champion for community-oriented policing, sharing he established the Police Chief’s Community Advisory Council and the Problem-Oriented Policing Team at his prior position.

Kinnan discussed the importance of community-oriented policing in a recent video posted to the Woodland Police Department’s Facebook page, which was posted with the intention of introducing the chief to the community.

“The one thing that is constant, the one thing we always should and have to be working on is community relationships,” Kinnan explains. “That ability to connect with our communities is something that has to be a constant with us.”

The chief went on to explain how one of his mentors taught him about the concept of a “goodwill bank.” Kinnan went on to say the department invests in these “banks” by building trust in the community, whether it’s via engagement events or participating in other capacities within their service areas.

“Every opportunity we have to connect with somebody and leave them in a better place makes a deposit in that good will bank,” he offers. “What we want is to never do is go ‘into the red’ — the more we can fill that bank up, the better off we are.”

Kinnan also discussed his stance on technological advancements in policing. According to the chief, there are plenty of benefits to integrating modern advancements with department operations.

“We want to identify what’s going to make our officers more efficient, more effective and what’s going to make our community more safe,” Kinnan said.

Kinnan explains that data collection is crucial to streamlining solutions to any problem, including how to better police communities. In order to have the most effective and efficient policing, one must look at what others have implemented to solve those same issues in other departments and, in some cases, update technology to coincide with the times.

“When we talk about intelligence policing being data-driven or data-informed, it all starts with that record management system — one where we can actually pull data from,” he explains. “And not just pull data from it, but pull usable data from it … As we look at crime, as we look at trends and we look at those things happening, we’ll sit down with our management team and figure out what is our priority from that.”

By focusing on specific crimes that data indicates occur at higher rates than others, Kinnan argues that overall crime will deescalate as the department would be tackling the majority of crimes.

“A big part of this is all of us being on the same page,” he said. “That’s the important part — being able to use the data and being data informed when using intelligence policing.”