Q&A: New Police Captain at SD Northwestern Division

Capt. Manuel Guaderrama, an Alpine resident and member of the San Diego Police Department for nearly 30 years, answers questions from Patch about his life and vision for the department’s Northwestern Division. Guaderrama took on the role as head supervisor there a little more than one month ago.

Patch: How did you get into law enforcement?

Capt. Manuel Guaderrama: Well, originally I studied to be a teacher and I obtained my teaching credential back in 1982. Teaching jobs were hard to come by at that time and I had family that was in law enforcement, so I got interested that way. I decided to join the San Diego Police Department.

Patch: Can you tell us a little bit about your career history?

Guaderrama: I've worked a whole bunch of different assignments as an officer and as a manager. During my last assignment, I was in charge of Traffic and the Special Operations Division, which included Traffic Division, SWAT, Canine, Air Support Unit, Parking Enforcement and our Special Events Unit.

Patch: Which have you most enjoyed?

Guaderrama: Boy, so much of this job I really enjoy. I really enjoyed my patrol experience, but I've have great experiences in just about every assignment I've had so I can't really pinpoint one particular thing.

Patch: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Guaderrama: I do a lot of fitness activities. I used to be a competitive distance runner so I still do some running and cycling. I enjoy camping—RVing, I should say—going up in the mountains and those kinds of things. And spending time with family, of course.

Patch: Do you have any trips planned in the near future?

Guaderrama: Nothing too big. We’re going to be going up for a weekend in Idlewild later this month, and in October we're going to spend a weekend in Napa Valley with some friends. We just took a motor home trip in July and traveled in California.

Patch: Tell us about your family?

Guaderrama: I’ve been married for 20 years and I have three sons—they’re all adults. My oldest son is a West Point graduate and serves in the United States Army, my middle son is a waiter at [the Brigantine] in La Mesa and my youngest son is a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley.

Patch: What is your vision for the Northwestern Division?

Guaderrama: My vision is to provide outstanding customer service, of course. I'm really going to be encouraging our officers to be proactive in solving community and crime issues in this area. And when I say proactive, that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll go out and try to arrest everybody. But if we see an issue, come up with some creative solution, maybe something we haven't tried before, and see if we can become successful and solve it—whatever the issue might be.

Patch: How many officers do you have serving the area?

Guaderrama: I'd have to count them all up, but I'm going to guess about 60. At the Northwestern Division, we also house the Telephone Report Unit—that's the part of the department where people can call in and file a crime report. That's not counted in the 60 officers that serve the community.

Patch: What is it like being in a smaller, newer police station?

Guaderrama: It's actually great. This is a great community, first of all, and because it's smaller I really have the opportunity to have a greater influence on our work product here. And one thing about being a little bit smaller is that our officers—although they're stretched geographically—they have a little bit more time to do more thorough investigations than at some of the busier commands. They have more time to spend with people who are victims of crimes.

Patch: What are the primary concerns in your neighborhood?

Guaderrama: Well, you know I've only been here four weeks. I do see there’s an issue with property crimes, so that's going to be one of our focuses. … In the first week in September, we’re going to have a supervisors’ meeting and that’s when we’re going to start setting our priorities for this division.

Patch: What response times can people expect from this division?

Guaderrama: I don’t have that information in front of me, unfortunately, and since I’m new here I don’t have that information [memorized] yet.

Patch: Have you been told to improve it or that people are happy with it—is there a baseline of sorts?

Guaderrama: I think we’re right in line with the rest of the department on emergency calls. I do think there’s some room for improvement, of course, in some of the serious calls .... Our No. 1 priority is to get there when there is an emergency.

Patch: Describe your management style?

Guaderrama: I’m a hands-on manager. I like to be kept informed and I really believe it’s important to lead by example here. I try to do that all the time. I don’t ask people to work harder than I do.

Patch: What is your philosophy in terms of transparency and communication with the public?

Guaderrama: I guess that depends a lot on what you mean by transparency. Working in law enforcement, there are things we can’t share right away because of the nature of what we do—if it’s an investigation that requires us to not share information because it could compromise that investigation. But we’re real open here. Whatever we can share, we’re willing to share.

Patch: Tell us something surprising about yourself—like a secret talent?

Guaderrama: I don’t think I have a secret talent. I think if I have a talent, everybody knows about it.