Hollister Making Change at the Top

Interim Chief Hopes to Hire More Officers

HOLLISTER—The Hollister Police Department rings in the New Year by making a change at the top.  Later this week, Captain Carlos Reynoso will become the City’s new Interim Police Chief.

Interim Chief David Westrick will be taking over the reins of Captain.  Westrick has been the Interim Police Chief since April when Chief Jeff Miller retired after eight years of service.

New Interim Police Chief Reynoso started his law enforcement career with the Hollister Police Department and has over 13 years experience with them.  The Department consists of 20 sworn officers and Chief Reynoso has received the green light to start hiring more officers. That’s good news for the City of Hollister, a city with a population of 38,000.

Thanks to a measure that passed in the last election the city now has the additional funding to pay for those officers.  Right now, both Westrick and Reynoso have had to make the most of a bad situation.  They are both dealing with a staff that is understaffed and overworked.

Interim Police Chief Reynoso hopes he can accomplish his goal of hiring more officers for the good of the department and the city.  The measure also provided for the hiring of a permanent Police Chief.  Both Westrick and Reynoso are candidates for that position.

“By planning ahead and splitting the chief job we were able to save the City about $200,000,” New Interim Police Chief Carlos Reynoso said. “Plus it is good experience for both Dave and myself.”

In 1999, there was funding available but when the economy tanked and the housing market went belly up, the city took the money and spread it out to other departments to keep them afloat.

Under Chief Reynoso, 2013 starts on a good note for the city of Hollister

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