Days after Fairfield Police Chief Kenton Rainey announced he would resign from the city's police department in early September, a group of church leaders and parishioners voiced their shock and dismay.

Rainey, who is one of three finalists for the Palo Alto police chief job, has held the top Fairfield job for little more than two years. His announcement came as a shock to those who knew him. The city had succeeded in having an injunction issued against members of the Nortenos gang; the faith community's relationship with the police has blossomed; and the rate for most major crimes has dropped by double digits from the previous year.

Why, the church leaders asked at the July 21 meeting, is Rainey leaving when things seem to be going so well?

"He's the first police chief in the almost 10 years I've served in this community as pastor of St. Martin's that has reached out to this community," said the Rev. Todd Bertani, pastor of the St. Martin's Episcopal Church.

Other pastors mixed their sadness about Rainey's departure with anger at the Fairfield City Council. The Rev. David Isom, pastor of St. Stephen Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, lashed out against two council members, Catherine Moy and Vice Mayor John Mraz, who have been critical of Rainey's police methods.

The outcry continued Wednesday, when city resident Rick Horton commended Rainey at the council meeting for bringing strong leadership to the city's police force and for inspiring community members to rally behind the department. Like others, Horton suggested that Rainey resigned because of criticism from the council.

"There's no reason for him to stay in a position where he's not wanted," Horton said to heavy ovation. "Chief Rainey is making a difference; he's bringing the community together and crime is being reduced."

But Mayor Harry Price reminded the audience the police chief works for the city manager and not the council.

Rainey's popularity in Fairfield's faith community isn't accidental. Fairfield City Manager Sean Quinn said Rainey has made an effort -- since coming to Fairfield in April 2007 -- to strengthen the ties between business, churches and the police department.

Quinn said Rainey also implemented a number of tactical changes in the department, including reducing the number of police beats from eight to five and concentrating more officers in areas of greater crime. He also focused much of his energy on community-oriented policing and helped bring after-school programs to the city's multi-family developments.

Ultimately, his strategy seemed to have paid off, Quinn said, noting crime is at a 10-year low.

Rainey, who grew up in Illinois but spent the bulk of his law-enforcement career in the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, is also no stranger to publicity and politics. In September 2008, Fairfield was stunned when 22-year-old Councilman Matt Garcia was shot and killed on the streets. Later that month, Councilman Frank Kardos killed himself, one day after a jury convicted him of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

Quinn said Rainey handled the two disasters very well, quickly coordinating a multi-agency investigation that led to identification and arrest of three suspects in Garcia's murder, two of whom were ultimately charged. Their trial is expected to begin in November.

"Kenton really jumped on it, generated a lot of leads and got help from a lot of agencies," Quinn said.

The decision to leave was ultimately Rainey's and Rainey's alone, Quinn said.

"He came in and offered to resign," Quinn said.

But some of Rainey's supporters have rejected the official explanation. The Rev. Ira Manning, who also addressed the Fairfield council on July 21, said the city is making a mistake in letting Rainey go.

"If I'd received a resignation letter from Chief Rainey, I would've took a look at it, read it, and said, 'You're not going anywhere,'" Manning said.


San Carlos Police Chief Greg Rothaus hasn't spent as much time as Rainey in political storms. But in recent years, he has also made headlines and won accolades for working with the community to reduce crime.

Ken Castle, who lives in San Carlos' peaceful White Oaks neighborhood, said he got to know Rothaus much better this spring, shortly after someone slashed the tires on Castle's car and 44 others. These acts of vandalism prompted Castle and his neighbors to form a neighborhood watch. When they reached out to the police, they were shocked by the support that came pouring their way, Castle told the Weekly.

Rothaus assigned an officer and a community-outreach worker to help the neighborhood and agreed to hold a Town Hall meeting to discuss crime prevention and strengthen the ties between the department and city residents.

"The chief immediately put a lot of resources to work with us on this -- it surprised the heck out of me," Castle said.

Rothaus began his career in San Carlos in 1985 and left the department in 1996. He served in Hercules and Menlo Park before returning to San Carlos in 2005. He was involved with the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force in the late 1990s and later headed patrol and investigative divisions in Menlo Park.

As the San Carlos chief, Rothaus has split his time between managing the police department and fighting a wide array of nuisance issues plaguing his city. He cracked down on people who illegally collect trash out of people's garbage cans and helped state Assemblyman Ira Ruskin write a law that reimburses the city for disposal of abandoned vehicles. His department also composes monthly newsletters that warn residents about scams and offer crime-prevention tips.

Among Rothaus' most successful and acclaimed programs is one that gives juvenile delinquents a chance to avoid the prison system by undergoing a six-month regimen that includes peer groups, individual and family counseling, visits to a state prison and restitutions to the victim. The program, which Rothaus implemented with Officer Ron Albertson in Menlo Park before bringing it to San Carlos, won a Jefferson Award last year.

After winning the award, Rothaus said in a televised interview that reaching out to families of juvenile delinquents is a critical component of his crime-prevention strategy.

Rothaus is also well-accustomed to tough financial climates. In 2006, he integrated San Carlos' police dispatch services with those of Menlo Park to reduce costs. In recent months, his department has made its operations more efficient by relying more on volunteers and nonsworn department employees.

"I think he has a real ability to relate to people in a very diverse community with high expectations," Castle said of Rothaus. "I feel it's really refreshing to sit down with a law-enforcement person and have an open-ended and open-minded discussion about solutions.

"It's enlightening."


Over the past nine months, Interim Police Chief Dennis Burns has heard speakers both publicly praise him as the perfect candidate for the permanent police chief job and berate him for being too close to the controversies that prompted his predecessor to resign.

Burns, a 27-year veteran of the Palo Alto police department, hasn't responded to frequent critics such as Aram James, who has long argued that Burns could've done more to discipline officers after the beating of Albert Hopkins and after the department's botched investigation of the Children's Theatre. Instead, Burns has been quietly working to narrow the schism between his department and Palo Alto's minority communities.

On Tuesday, during a monthly "Meet the Chief" gathering, Burns stood in the pulpit of the Jerusalem Baptist Church, his eyes closed, while the Rev. Anthony Darrington recited a prayer. In November, Darrington was one of the first black leaders to demand the resignation of former Police Chief Lynne Johnson, who rattled the community Oct. 30 with public comments that many interpreted as an endorsement of racial profiling. Days later, Burns joined Johnson at a community meeting at the church, where officers were greeted with anger and jeers from the parishioners.

But this week, the atmosphere at the church was much more amicable. Officers talked about ways to prevent identity theft, recited crime statistics and talked about the recent marijuana busts in the foothills. Darrington said the police department has been exhibiting "better behavior" and urged more meetings between the police department and the church community.

Darrington told the Weekly he wasn't sure whether the "better behavior" he's been noticing from the police on the streets is a fundamental change or a "show for the season." But he said he doesn't care, so long as the show continues and everyone is treated fairly.

But at least one person who has worked with Burns on detecting and purging racial bias from the department said Palo Alto's interim chief is serious about improving race relations. Lorie Fridell, a criminology professor at University of South Florida and a nationally recognized expert on racial profiling, told the Weekly she met Burns last year in a Las Vegas training seminar, six months before his department was hit with the storm of racial-profiling allegations.

"He said, 'We need to be more proactive,' and he reached out to me," she said.

Fridell has been advising Burns on the "action plan" he and Johnson formulated last November to heal community relations. The plan includes monthly meetings with the community, increased training for officers on detecting bias and creation of a new citizen board to advise the police department on community outreach.

Tuesday's meeting appeared to have served its purpose. Audience members thanked the police for coming and praised the "respective exchange of information" between officers and community members.

"I think you all should have some of us over to your place to hear the things we might say that should help with community and race relations," Darrington told Burns at the meeting's conclusion.

"You're welcome to come any time and to bring your parishioners," Burns responded.