It’s been two months since Ken Anderson handed in his badge as Alamosa Police Chief. Since then, Joey Spangler has calmed the waters of the rank-and-file as the acting police chief, the city council has completed a series of closed-door meetings to gauge the fallout and emerged with a vote of confidence in City Manager Heather Sanchez, and Anderson has started a new job as Division Chief with the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Anderson’s resignation sparked a community outcry and had city council members scrambling to explain how a beloved police chief could walk away with such acrimony. The city council did, following the executive sessions, come out in support of Sanchez, who’s management style and leadership were among the reasons cited for the resignation.
“While no system is ever perfect and City Council and City Manager Sanchez have
identified some improvements going forward, City Council remains supportive in Sanchez’s leadership and looks forward to working together,” city council members said in a prepared statement.
Timeline for new chief
Spangler’s performance as acting police chief, where he’s not only settled the department but settled into the job, is buying the city more time as it finalizes its search committee (see list below) and begins reviewing what is now a field of eight applicants for the police chief job. Spangler is not one of them.
Sanchez anticipates the search committee beginning to review applicants later this month and into February.
“I think the department is in a good place right now,” Spangler said, joining Sanchez on this episode of The Valley Pod to discuss his time so far as police chief. “A lot of these guys just want to come in and serve the community. That’s why they got into this job. They didn’t get into this job for who the chief is at the time, regardless of who it is or who I am as a captain, they got into it for their personal beliefs and wanting to help.”
Sanchez said Spangler’s performance as acting chief is allowing the city to be deliberate and intentional about what it’s looking for in its next chief. “If it was a situation where Chief Spangler was coming to me and saying, ‘Heather, it’s too much. It’s too much for me to take on,’ we’d either have to look at, is there some other interim promotions within or do we need to speed this up? But I think everyone wants this process to get us the best chief possible.”
Anderson, meanwhile, was sworn in this week to serve as division chief with the sheriff’s office. In that role he will primarily oversee the patrol division of the sheriff’s office, as well as work with the jail and administration.
“I look forward to my next chapter with these guys,” he said during his swearing in on Wednesday.
Replacing Anderson will fall to Sanchez and the committee she’s put together. The city council is not part of the search itself, and Sanchez told Alamosa Citizen the city doesn’t plan to release a list of finalists for the job.
“The city does not release the names of applicants or finalists,” she said.
Policing Alamosa
Who serves next as police chief will determine how policing occurs in Alamosa, from whether the city sticks with its current L.E.A.D. strategy – or Law Enforcement Against Drugs – in efforts to address drug-related crimes, to how the police department interacts with residents and handles its calls for service.
“God, I love it. I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would and this is where I want to do or be in the future,” Spangler said of the position. He said his role as captain of patrol and commander of the SWAT team before he was elevated to acting chief continues to be his focus and why he’s not applied for the permanent appointment.
Plus, a career of police chief can be short-lived, Spangler said.
“Obviously it’s crossed my mind plenty of times over the last two months, even before that. And at the end of my career, that is where I want to get to,” he said.
Alamosa, he said, doesn’t have more of a crime problem than any other community. Calls for service have stayed largely the same since 2017, and it’s drug-related offenses and dealing with drug-addicted homeless that account for the bulk of police responses.
For his part, Spangler said he is trying to move the police department into a more proactive strategy, where it’s enacting more community policing practices versus simply responding to calls.
“For example, this week we got a team going out that is just going to do school patrols and downtown patrol,” he said.
“Now, you got to know the people in your community,” he said of shifting to community policing style. “You got to know the people in your beat, your neighborhood, where the crimes are happening. And that’s where we would like to kind of expand toward, from the big hot zones.”
While he contemplated and decided not to apply for the police chief position, Spangler left open the door to the possibility.
“What I really want on this go-round is just see what options are out there, what is good for the department, because at the end of the day, not just selfish me, I just want what’s best for the department and the community.
“Now if that candidate’s not in this applicant pool and the city decides, let’s reopen it later on, I don’t want to close the door on it. And at that point I’d probably sit down with my family and seriously consider putting in.”
Alamosa Police Chief Selection Committee:
City Manager Heather Sanchez, acting Police Chief Joey Spangler, Fire Chief Bill Stone, Public Works Director Harry Reynolds, City Clerk Holly Martinez, Economic Development Director and former Alamosa mayor Kathy Woods, Monte Vista Police Chief George Dingfelder, former Durango police chief Bob Brammer, and three Alamosa police department staff members to be named.
Read the story: Anderson sworn in at Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office.