Chief David Valentin has announced he will retire sometime this year as the Santa Ana Police Department’s top cop.
Since taking the leadership role in the department six years ago, Valentin, city officials said in an announcement of his retirement, had focused the department more on traditional policing to address violent crime and improved department transparency in addition to leading the agency through the coronavirus pandemic.
During his tenure he also faced a no-confidence vote by the department’s rank-and-file and challenges from the police union’s leadership.
Valentin, who was raised in the city, has served the department for 33 years; he was tapped in 2018 to fill the chief spot as an interim following the resignation of Police Chief Carlos Rojas and then permanently.
“Coming from a space where I could have easily been killed on these very streets or have been sent to prison, like several young men I grew up with, to humbly and proudly serving as a Santa Ana police officer and then rising to serve as the first police chief from Santa Ana, is truly surreal,” Valentin said in a statement. “It has been an absolute honor and I owe my family a debt of lifetime gratitude for their unconditional love and fierce support.”
Valentin could not be immediately reached for comment, and no information was provided on when he will start his retirement or on a replacement. A city spokesman could also not be immediately reached.
In recent years, there have been various public clashes between department and city leadership and the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and its president, Gerry Serrano, who also recently retired. Serrano and the union filed several lawsuits against city staff – largely unsuccessful.
In September 2021, 54% of the 353 sworn and non-sworn personnel who voted supported the declaration of “no confidence” in Valentin, who at the time said he was under “intense personal and political attack” from Serrano.
In response…
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