San Fernando’s New Chief Sets 3 Priorities for Police

Dominick J. Rivetti took over as police chief of San Fernando on Tuesday and said his top priorities will be wiping out drug dealing in the barrio, training officers to speak Spanish and running a more efficient department.

Rivetti, a 16-year veteran of the department, was unanimously appointed by the City Council on Monday to direct the 32-officer department, which has a budget of $2.7 million this year.

The police chief said he intends to target drug trafficking in the Kalisher Street area, sending more undercover narcotics officers to the neighborhood.

Rivetti said it is realistic to believe that in San Fernando, a city of only 2.5 square miles, the Police Department can apply constant pressure to drive out drug dealers.

“If we target the street and start making arrests, there is a very good chance we can displace the criminal activity,” he said. “It would be naive to think we could do away with the problem completely. The next best thing is to make the environment so inhospitable to drug dealers that they go to another area. If it’s out of the city, we’ve solved our problem.”

Previous Chief Died

Rivetti, 37, has been the acting police chief since December, when Chief Charles E. Sherwood died of leukemia. Rivetti joined the force in 1970, became a detective in 1976 and a lieutenant in 1982. As chief, his salary is $47,363.

Rivetti said he is concerned that only two officers speak Spanish in his department, which serves a city that is more than 70% Latino.

“I don’t think we will be able to solve this problem overnight, but there are ways of increasing the bilingual ability of officers,” he said. Officers will be encouraged to take Spanish courses through city programs that pay for part of the instruction, he said.

Rivetti is in favor of building a $2-million police station, a plan that in recent months has been the focus of two controversial petition drives.

The first petition opposed a council action to exchange land with the county so that the station could be built on a larger property. Faced with the petition, the council rescinded its action but purchased the land it would have acquired in the swap.

Because of the second petition drive, San Fernando voters will decide in June whether the council or voters should have authority over land-use decisions on the city-owned property that would be left vacant with the opening of a new station.

Rivetti, calling the existing station cramped and obsolete, said files and lockers are housed in unused jail cells in the 30-year-old station. A new building would enable the department to operate more efficiently, he said.