His Big Step Is Santa Ana’s Too

An officer who championed Santa Ana’s community policing program more than two decades ago will become the first Latino police captain in the department’s 116-year history.

George Saadeh, who grew up in Honduras and sold flowers from street corners in Los Angeles as a teen, Friday will begin managing the department’s largest bureau--the 200 officers who patrol the city’s streets.

Latino rights activists said Saadeh’s promotion helps the credibility of a police department in a city that has the largest percentage of Spanish speakers in the nation.

Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County, said the lack of a Latino in the top ranks of the police department has been only a “soft issue” in Santa Ana.

“We recognize that they have a lot of Hispanic officers,” said David. “It’s just a matter of time, especially in a city as unique as Santa Ana.”

When Police Chief Paul M. Walters was rumored to be in the running for the top law enforcement post in Riverside County recently, city leaders predicted Santa Ana would get its first Latino police chief.

But Walters didn’t leave. He said there hasn’t been a Latino in the top ranks of the department until now because there hasn’t been an opening in a dozen years.

In a city where 74% of the residents speak Spanish, Santa Ana’s 671-member police force is 51% Latino, tops in the state.

David said the increase in Latino officers and promotions of people like Saadeh--currently a lieutenant--has helped smooth out the relationship between police and the Latino community, which deteriorated in the early 1990s when officer-involved shootings increased.

For Saadeh, 47, the promotion marks a return to the streets. He has spent the last four years in internal affairs and investigating officer-related shootings. “I’m thrilled I’ll be able to work with the community in a way again,” Saadeh said.

Evangeline Gawronski, a lifelong Santa Ana resident and president of the Community Oriented Policing Assn., said she met Saadeh at community meetings 25 years ago when the Community Oriented Policing program was reintroducing a walking-the-beat-style of policing. “He gives us a feeling of security,” said Gawronski, “that we’re not alone.”

The oldest of three children, Saadeh was born and raised in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1970 when he was 15. He said it was a quick cultural immersion. He learned English in six months, sold flowers for $1 a bundle to earn spending money and decided to study business at the University of Redlands. He met his future wife while working in the men’s suit department at Montgomery Ward. They now have two daughters, 13 and 11, and live in South County.

He switched his major to law enforcement and--at the age of 20--was hired by Santa Ana in 1975. “I wanted to come home at night and feel good that I helped someone,” he said.

At the time, burglaries and auto thefts in Santa Ana were at a peak. As a rookie, he was credited with putting together the Community Oriented Policing program, which is now standard in many communities.

Saadeh and other officers trained new officers to get out of their patrol cars and talk with people in the community. They held meetings, passed out pamphlets and held nightly walks with neighbors to improve neighborhoods one block at a time.

“We knew in order to get the community involved, we have to reach out to them and make them stakeholders,” said Saadeh. Santa Ana community members became the eyes and ears of the department, reporting crimes when many immigrants were skeptical or afraid of police.

“Being born somewhere else brings a different perspective to a job because you understand the culture,” said Saadeh.

Gawronski said Saadeh has earned respect, neighborhood by neighborhood.

“He’s a person who listens to the people who live in the neighborhood and takes their concerns into consideration,” said Gawronski.