City of San Bernardino welcomes new Police Chief Darren Goodman, who’s prioritizing public safety

While San Bernardino Police Department’s (SBPD) new Chief of Police Darren Goodman is new to the city, he’s anything but new to the field of law enforcement.

Goodman served 27 years with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and most recently served four years as Upland Police Department’s chief of police. 

With a continuance of high-crime in the city, Goodman is prioritizing proactive policing to elevate public safety across the city. 

“Every municipality is built based on the perception of safety. People choose where to live, where to shop, where to invest or build a business based on safety. I take the nature of policing very seriously because if we get the public safety intact, we can improve the city as a whole,” said Goodman. 

“My goal is to have the capacity to perform aggressive, proactive policing. The only way to prevent crime is to get out there before it happens. If we wait for a call of service, the crime has already happened,” continued Goodman. 

In order to take a proactive approach to policing to lower events of criminal activity, he says the department needs more police on staff.

“Our staffing level is down and it’s been down since the city’s bankruptcy. The bulk of our officers are responding to calls and not able to focus on patrolling the community. Our current force level of officers is around 270 and I would love to see us at 350,” said Goodman. 

Prior to the city’s bankruptcy in 2012, the department was staffed with over 300 police officers. 

Many media outlets have recently called attention to Goodman being the first black chief of police in the city, and Goodman says his ethnicity is not of importance in terms of how the job is executed, but it does build trust amongst the community. 

“The presence of black and brown officers doesn’t change how we perform our jobs or how criminals respond to us, but what it does, is it builds community trust and forges relationships when a diverse police force resembles its community,” Goodman said. 

When the chief of police opportunity came to Goodman, he felt that San Bernardino had a lot of potential and saw it as a prime opportunity to help the community and its leadership turn the city around. 

“San Bernardino’s City Manager Rob Fields has started to put together a great group of leaders in the city’s economic development and finance departments, among others, and there are many new great ideas, lots of energy and motivation. There’s no connection to the old way things were executed in the city and I’m excited to be surrounded by other go-getters who want to make the city a better place,” said goodman. 

Goodman also shared a brief tid-bit regarding his favorite part about the city, which happens to be its food and its people who want to turn the city around, for the better. 

“To be honest, my favorite part about the city is its food. I’ve been trying out new taco shops every other week, But aside from that, it’s the people – those who have lived here all their lives, those who are prideful of San Bernardino and hungry for change,” concluded Goodman.