New Burlingame Police Chief Raj Vaswani has a keen focus on fostering positive relationships between the city community and residents as the department navigates issues like traffic safety, keeping downtown areas crime-free and upping police retention rates, he said.
“Being visible for myself, in addition to the officers being visible … I think that’s important,” he said. “I’ve tried my best to go out to the events and just be out there so people can talk to me, and I expect the same from my officers — that we make sure that when the business groups, the Chamber of Commerce, the neighborhood groups need us, that we’re there for them.”
Open dialogue and transparent explanations of police actions can go a long way in creating and maintaining a beneficial relationship where officers view themselves as safekeepers of their city, Vaswani said.
“When our officers go out and about, their mindset is really that they’re going out there as a guardian of the city,” he said.
Vaswani succeeds former Burlingame Police Chief Michael Matteucci and has been on the job for a little over two months. Previously, he served an extensive 31-year tenure with the San Francisco Police Department, working a variety of roles — undercover, in the legal division, and as a command captain in the Haight-Ashbury and Bayview neighborhoods, among others.
Despite the geographic and population differences between a Peninsula city like Burlingame and the neighborhoods of San Francisco, Vaswani said in many ways, the approach to policing can be similar, focused on community needs.
“San Francisco is larger and denser, but when it comes down to neighborhood issues, a lot of the community expects the same,” he said. “They want a responsive police department that addresses neighborhood issues. It could be anywhere from burglaries, traffic safety for kids to get to and from school, and just thriving downtown.”
There are also Burlingame-specific issues that Vaswani hopes to tackle, he said, citing police visibility and prompt enforcement against any crimes that occur in the city’s two business districts — Burlingame Avenue and Broadway.
“If there are crimes that occur … we address them quickly, and we do everything in our power to make sure that the downtown’s safe, so the merchants can continue to thrive and it makes it an attractive place to do business,” Vaswani said.
Because of Burlingame’s thriving and well-maintained business districts and a large hotel presence on the Bayfront, the city is often a hot spot for Peninsula tourist activity, leading to increased traffic and density.
Traffic safety, in particular, has been an increasing focus of city residents, as three pedestrians have died in traffic-related accidents in Burlingame since last September. The Police Department is currently testing for another traffic officer, Vaswani said.
“Traffic is a priority,” he said. “It’s not just enforcement, a lot of it is education outreach. We work really closely with the school district … any opportunity we have to educate and have that conversation on traffic safety, we explore that.”
As police departments across the country struggle to retain adequate numbers of officers, Burlingame is no exception, particularly given the high cost of living and housing in the area.
Creating a supportive environment for the force is a first priority when addressing that issue, Vaswani said — and he often asks residents to pass along compliments given to him about the force directly to dispatchers and officers.
“What can I do to make sure the cops are supported,” he asked, “and that they have the tools to do their job, and that they feel a sense of belonging in not only the police department but the community?”
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“Traffic is a priority,” he said. “It’s not just enforcement, a lot of it is education outreach. We work really closely with the school district … any opportunity we have to educate and have that conversation on traffic safety, we explore that.”
I'm not sure if school districts need more "Education" - they need "Engineering" (aka bike lanes).
But who does need more "Education":
- Current council members like Donna Colson, Andrea Pappajohn, but also Thayer, Stevenson, and Brownrigg who want children to "share the road" on Trousdale and Davis? Who does something like that? How d.., sorry 'uneducated' to you have to be to support this?
- Fire Chiefs - in every discussion around here some 'undereducated' fire chief is pulled out of the woodwork claiming that bike lanes could harm their emergency response times, when the opposite is known to be true by real fire professionals.
- let's not forget the Police Chief, who gives away his car centricity by calling it "traffic" instead of "transportation". 'Traffic' is all about cars, congestions, crashes, collisions, sideshows, speeding, drunk driving, etc. Transportation is what the government calls the "movement of people and goods". Transportation includes people walking and biking, while 'traffic' is all about cars.
^ Loony bike lane activist identified
They call gasoline the "sinner's tax" or "vice tax" because driving is more addictive and more damaging to everyone's health than alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, betting, and gambling combined.
As an avid driver myself, I don't know any driver who hates bike lanes and enjoys driving behind some slow bicycle. Not even one. The only ones opposing bike lanes are either directly or indirectly in the pocket of the car and fossil fuel industry ... or they are highly addicted to driving and fear or envy the people that are not.
Unfortunately San Mateo Democrats seem to fit in both categories. They are being "sponsored" and they do show signs of addiction.
Why has BPD not filed any charges against the driver who drove onto a sidewalk, killing 4-year-old Ayden Fang. This happened 2.5 months ago and the driver is still on our streets. What is there still investigate? Or is is the City simply waiting for scrutiny to die down?
I think because it seems to have been a terrible accident. I feel badly both for the little boy and his poor family and the young driver. It was/is a tragedy.
Yes RuthieL - one can kill someone in California with impunity driving a car. How many times do we have to see that these drivers are never identified, charged or even given a ticket? Who is that guy who killed the young mother on the 92 off ramp? Who is the young driver killing the boy? Why was the young driver, who raced with the actual killer, sent to jail, while the guilty one was eventually let go? Who said it once, that we are all equal, but some are more equal than others. There are no repercussions, so these travesties will continue to happen.
Exactly.
How do we prevent this from happening again if the driver is not held responsible for her actions???
If someone's gun misfires, or they fire it in error, would we let the shooter off the hook?
Hey joebob91, ever hear of a guy named Alec Baldwin? After shooting someone, Mr. Baldwin was let off the hook and wasn’t held responsible for his actions. Perhaps we should allow the investigation/legal systems determine whether these are tragic accidents or whether there are any criminal charges. If there are, perhaps we should allow the legal system/jury of her peers decide whether they’re guilty. Of course, as Mr. van Ulden reminds us, we then need to ask whether judges impose appropriate punishment should guilty verdicts be returned.
There are no such things as "accidents" in transportation. These are all mistakes of city planners and transportation engineers - we know that because "Vision Zero" tells us so. The moment San Mateo County and its cities adopted Vision Zero - they admit fault for every single crash that leads to death or major injuries.
"Accidents" as in "acts of god" are rather rare. "Accidents" that happen due to human error are also preventable by humans. Most crashes happen due to speeding, distracted and/or reckless - and those can be prevented or reduced by engineering solutions.
In every single case Dirk mentioned, the fault was with the reckless driver and not some tragic event or god.
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