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Chief Volger Gets Ready to Go Fishing, Part Two |
Bill Hudson | 11/24/08
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In Part One, last Friday, I wrote about the first half of my recent interview with Pagosa Springs Chief of Police Don Volger. Volger is retiring from his position at the end of 2008 — after 28 years on the Pagosa Police Force, including 24 years as Chief — and was scheduled to be celebrated on Friday evening at a community potluck. (You can view photos from that potluck celebration by visiting this Post news article.)
Don finished summarizing his history on the Pagosa Springs force, and explaining why this seems just the right moment to retire — he referred to his department as “probably stronger, and more efficient, and more professional, than it has ever been.” Don carefully gave me the background of each current officer and extolled each one’s dedication and specialized training. Continued...
I then asked him how his job had changed over the past 28 years — starting back when Pagosa Springs and Archuleta County had just a few thousand people living here. I frankly expected to hear Don delineate how the types of crimes had changed over the years — in particular, how the drug culture may have affected the job.
But Don came at the question from a very different angle, and talked about how the whole approach to criminal justice has changed in America since the early 1980s.
“The things people see on television, on CSI, that gives a very unrealistic view of what law enforcement is really like. They don’t show the hours and hours spent at a computer writing up a thorough investigation report, putting it into a format where they can take it to the prosecutors. They don’t show the time it takes to label and keep a chain of custody on maybe hundreds of pieces of evidence, so you have a clean chain, so you can present that evidence in court and not lose any of that evidence.
“Things have gotten… more complex. And law enforcement across the nation is held to a higher standard, for a lot of different reasons.
 “We don’t have street justice any more — which is a good thing. Back before World War II and even after World War II, if you had somebody who was acting up a little bit, you’d take him out in the back alley, maybe give him an attitude adjustment. Solves the problem.
“At least, they thought it did.
“Domestic violence — our response to that has changed. Back in the ‘60s, and even in the ‘70s. we may go in and try to play counselor, separate them for the night, and hopefully everything is going to be fine. Tell them to talk to a counselor, talk to their priest… and don’t call us again.
“But in reality, we’d be called back over and over, because it didn’t break the cycle of violence.
“So as things have changed in our culture, law enforcement has become more complex. When I first started, it didn’t take me too long before I felt that any concern that came to my attention, I could probably handle it — or figure out how to handle it, with limited resources.
“Today, I would say that all of my staff, at one level or another, have skill sets that I don’t have. Even with our administrative assistants, they know how to do things on the computer that I don’t know how to do.
“Early on, I could do everything on the department. Everything. From filing, to arresting, to citations, to presenting my case in municipal court — I could pretty much do everything, and then instruct other people how to do it as well.
“That day is long gone. There are many things that other members of the department do far better than I do. So it’s been a change from, ‘Here, I know how to do everything, I can show you how to do it, or if you don’t get it done, I’ll do it for you’ … it’s changed from that kind of environment to one where — we have to work together, and I have to count on the other staff.
“Across the board, instead of a system where you can have Andy of Mayberry there, pretty much handling everything — and in some ways, we used to be like that back in the ‘70s — now we have a modern, professional police force where different people fill different roles.”
Don also talked about how the relationship between the police officer and the suspect has changed — and between the officer and the victim of the crime.
“Early on in my career, we were going in to arrest the bad guy. The victim had to fend for themselves… hopefully family or someone would come in — but we didn’t spend much time focused on victims, because we had the bad guys to catch, and the crimes to solve.
“So a lot of times, victims didn’t get the attention that they need.
“Now, we’re much more sensitive to victims. Victims are getting the support them need — we have a great victim advocacy office here, and we have the Department of Human Services who work with kids and help protect kids. We work together to make such they get those services.
“It’s not the good guys in the white hats, riding in and putting the bad guys in jail and calling it good — and riding off into the sunset. Life is much more complex.
“And especially in a small community like ours, ‘bad guys’ are not necessarily ‘bad guys’. We’re all human beings, and we all make mistakes. I would be willing to bet there is not a single person in this community who has not broken the law. In that sense, we are all criminals — myself included. So we need to take a braoder look at that.
“It’s not the people that we are fighting. It’s the crime that we’re fighting.
“I have to hate the crime. I’ve got to hate the pain that it causes, and the damage that it causes.
“But I can still love people who commit crime.
“The best way to express that love is to hold them accountable. And sometimes to physically take someone under control, and maybe hurt them. It may even mean defending life, and taking someone's life.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t love them.
“And I think most of the officers in this department understand that. We can hate crime, and work diligently to solve crimes — but still have compassion for the people who commit crimes. Because none of us are perfect.
"All of us make mistakes.
“When someone makes a mistake, they need to be held accountable — so hopefully, there will be a life change. You can take the nicest, kindest, gentlest human being, and if a situation arises that they can’t cope with appropriately, they can end up causing major trauma, major damage — harming themselves or others. Does that mean they’re a criminal? No, it means they’re human.” |
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