Quincy selects new police chief
Cameron Probert/Columbia Basin Herald<br> Richard Ackerman, a Quincy police chief candidate, speaks during the community meeting.
QUINCY — Quincy city staff and the mayor are negotiating to hire Richard Ackerman as the new police chief.
The former Los Angeles Police lieutenant was selected from four candidates to replace Interim Police Chief Greg Meinzer. Meinzer took the position after Police Chief Bill Gonzales retired in July.
The Quincy City Council agreed to pay the new chief $81,000 a year during their Tuesday meeting. The new chief is slated to make about $6,000 more than the interim chief, Mayor Jim Hemberry said the city will not have to pay for medical benefits.
Ackerman worked for 32 years as part of the Los Angeles Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant. He worked as both an administrator, helping with the 1984 Summer Olympics, and participating the investigation of the attack on Rodney King and the riot in the city. When he was an administrator, he led 10 to 400 officers, he said during a forum of the candidates.
“What I have to bring to the table as a chief here in Quincy is I’m a very active, outgoing, involved type of individual,” he said. “I’m very active, hands on, when it comes to law enforcement.”
Ackerman said he enjoys interacting with law enforcement and civilians and plans to have an open-door policy.
Hemberry said the city is still in the process of finishing a background check, a polygraph and psychological test for the chief and hopes to have them complete soon.
“Then I will ask the council for authorization to hire him,” he said. “He’s anxious to get started. It’s looking like it could be Dec. 1, when he starts. We would keep the interim chief for the transition.”
The selection committee chose Ackerman because of the amount of experience he has, Hemberry said, adding the potential chief worked in a lot of areas of law enforcement.
Hemberry’s goals for the new chief are to work on gang issues and improve community policing in the city.
“I’m big on community policing. Greg’s already started all of that, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for an interim chief to put a lot of programs in place,” he said. “This gentleman will be coming in with some expectation of what I want to see done.”