Anderson City Council Votes to Select New Police Chief
Oliver Collins has been selected to replace Interim Chief Greg Baarts as the head of APD. Once appointed, he will become the third to hold the role of Anderson Police Department Chief this year.
Oliver Collins has been preliminarily selected as Anderson’s next Police Chief. On Tuesday night, the Anderson City Council gave the green light to City Manager Joey Forseth-Dehais to sign Collins’ employment agreement into action.
According to his pending contract, once officially appointed, Collins will hold the position for five years with an annual salary of $244,275. He was selected from among 24 applicants.
“He’s very big on building the next generation of law enforcement,” said Forseth-Dehais as he presented Collins as a candidate to the five members of Anderson’s Council. They were unanimous in their support for Collins’ hire, each underscoring Anderson’s unwavering commitment to law enforcement.
For the past seven years, Collins has been the captain of the police department in Emeryville – a city of approximately 13,000 nestled between Oakland and Berkeley. Over the course of his 24 years in law enforcement, he’s participated in SWAT, Community Engagement, detective, and grant assignments. He is a graduate of the POST Command College (Peace Officer Command Training), the FBI National Academy, and holds a Masters of Science in Criminal Justice and Leadership Management.
At his past posts in both Emeryville and the City of Novato, Collins shared public statements with the press on numerous occasions, including after a 2023 “melee” at a mall in Emeryville that made international headlines.
In 2016, Collins was the subject of a discrimination lawsuit filed by two officers, one female who alleged gender discrimination and one male, who alleged discrimination based on his sexual orientation. According to the Marin Independent Journal, the judge dismissed parts of the male officer’s case, but the city of Novato still settled out of court, emphasizing that their decision to do so was “not an admission of any wrongdoing.”
Pouring more resources into the Anderson Police Department has been a frequent talking point for hopefuls running for Anderson’s City Council in the upcoming election. Incumbent Stan Neutze recently told the Record Searchlight that the city has increased its police force from 14 to 24 officers, and that Anderson is among “the three safest cities in California.” Shasta Scout has so far been unable to identify a source documenting Anderson on any listing of safest cities in the state, and has reached out to Neutze for clarification.
However, the Anderson Police Department has made negative headlines in San Francisco. The Chronicle recently published the results of study that found that in 2023, APD officers were twice as likely to pull over Black drivers than those who are White.
Collins will replace former California High Patrol Officer Greg Baarts, who became interim Anderson Police Chief after former Chief Jon Poletski retired in April. Poletski was put on administrative leave in February, pending an internal investigation. City Manager Forseth-Dehais’ has said that none of the findings of the investigation into Poletski were “sustained,” but the circumstances of his leave have not been made public.
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Let’s see if the “new” Chief can prevail upon his officers to actually respond to calls, write some traffic tickets and dip their toes into the novel concept of “neighborhood policing” and such. For what he’s getting overpaid, such a deal!
Proof is in the pudding. No transient camps or panhandling tolerated, low crime and fast officer response time. It’s not a mystery. Now we need someplace to keep the criminals and inveterate addicts.
Now we just need a clean slate of non corrupt supervisors who will do their jobs and prioritize and find money for a jail. ALL of the current ones have failed, miserably. Chambers have degenerated into a kindergarten sandbox where finger pointing, chest beating, squabbles, insults, shunning, special interest service, cronyism, and self serving supervisor “statements” rule each Tuesday. It’s so gross. We deserve better.
The vast majority of this issue could be solved with proper mental health an rehabilitation programs. A jail only treats one of the symptoms, not the issue itself.