Final Topeka police chief candidates interact with community during meet and greet
TOPEKA (KSNT) - It's the final countdown to finding the capitol city's next police chief. A pool that started with 18 applicants is now down to two candidates. Russell Klumpp and Chris Vallejo.
Wednesday, November 6, community members had the chance to interact with both of them at a meet and greet at Hotel Topeka.
Major Klumpp is a lifelong Topekan and has been with the Topeka Police Department (TPD) for nearly 30 years. 16 of those years have come at the command level. With an understanding of the Topeka community, he says community relations is always the top priority.
"Community relations is always the top priority," Klumpp said. "We do that through community policing philosophy, having those positive contacts in the community, being engaged with the community, having more transparency with the community and having opportunities with that open dialog."
When it comes to violent crime, Klumpp says the police department needs to be more proactive when addressing it. While he says one way is using different technologies through partnerships with other agencies, he adds another is adjustments within.
"We can also look toward our investigative capacity," Klumpp said. "Internally, we need to look within the agency to assess whether or not we're being as efficient as possible with our manpower that we have, and shoring up those inefficiencies if we find them."
And then there's Chris Vallejo. Although he's not from Topeka, or the Sunflower State for that matter, he has three decades of law enforcement experience under his belt. From training, to investigation, to patrol in Austin, Texas with a metropolitan area of over a million people and two million metro.
While both capitol cities aren't comparable when it comes to size, Vallejo believes his experiences translate directly.
"Policing is largely a social service, so there's no shortage of folks here that we serve and protect and we provide services to them," Vallejo said. "So, it's pretty much scalable up or down I believe."
Again, when it comes to violent crime here in Topeka, even though there's been a decline this year compared to last, Vallejo, like Klumpp, knows its something that needs to be addressed.
And he believes with his experience, he can help address it.
"Violent crime persists anywhere, at least a perception of violent crime," Vallejo said. "So perceptions of safety are my concern and violent crime. Looking at those areas within a city, like I said, Urban areas, and how crime manifests itself in a city are pretty similar. And I have that experience and background and formal education to look at that thing along with my team and along with the community to find solutions."
The city council is holding a special meeting to discuss both Police Chief candidates.