Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Category Archives: Carlos Rojas

Former SAPD Police Chief Rojas’ lawsuit against the City of Santa Ana should be disregarded because he was incompetent

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana, SAPD 2 Comments

Gerry Serrano, the President of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association has responded to the ridiculous lawsuit filed by former SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas, with this statement:

“I’m shocked and dumbfounded that Rojas would make such false accusations and continue to damage our city and community. The truth, that the Police Officers Association knows is he was incompetent and had lost the confidence of the rank and file; a vote of No Confidence was initiated, personnel matters were mismanaged and he was unable to implement an effective community oriented policing philosophy. Continue reading→

Rojas filed a claim against the City of Santa Ana after he quickly angered his new bosses at BART

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Michele Martinez, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Do you remember when former SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas quit the SAPD to go be the Chief at BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit System in San Francisco and Oakland)? At the time Rojas said his new job was a “fun” challenge. “I’m excited and humbled to have been selected to lead such a progressive police department,” he said.

Well it did not take Rojas long to anger his new employers!

“Not long after Rojas started work in late May, he made the decision to stop issuing daily curated email reports on police calls at BART, which described in short paragraphs the reported crime and the department’s response, and instead, to send BART crime information to the free online tool, CrimeMapping.com,” according to the Mercury News. Continue reading→

Deputy Chief Jim Schnabl, an H.R. guy, is the new Acting Police Chief of the SAPD

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, David Benavides, Doug McGeachy, Jim Schnabl, Michele Martinez, Robert Cortez, Sal Tinajero, Santa Ana, Vince Sarmiento 2 Comments

Jim Schnabl

Deputy Chief Jim Schnabl has been selected as the new Acting Police Chief of the SAPD, according to a message sent to SAPD employees by outgoing Chief Carlos Rojas, who resigned when he was hired to serve as the new Chief of the BART Police in San Francisco.

Schnabl has been running the SAPD’s Administrative Bureau, which oversees Human Resources, Training, Information Services, and the Central Distribution Center (CDC). The Bureau is also responsible for the Communications Center which is often a point of first contact with the community in providing emergency and non-emergency services. Continue reading→

Carlos Rojas has been hired to be the new BART Police Chief in the Bay Area

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana 3 Comments

Former SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas just  resigned in Santa Ana but he has already landed a new job. Rojas is the new Police Chief for the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) subway system in the Bay Area, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rojas is taking over from the former BART Police Chief, Kenton Rainey, who retired last December. Continue reading→

SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas has resigned

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana 7 Comments

Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas (pictured in the middle)

Santa Ana Police Department, Office of the Chief of Police

Memo To: ​​Gerardo Mouet, Acting City Manager​

From:​​ Carlos Rojas, Chief of Police

Date: ​April 19, 2017

Subject: ​Resignation

For over 27 years, I have had the privilege and honor to serve the business owners, residents and all community members of this wonderful city. This memo will serve as my intent to resign as the Chief of Police for the City of Santa Ana. Continue reading→

Murders nearly doubled last year as crime hit a six year high in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana 4 Comments

Remember when the previous Santa Ana City Council majority, SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas and our since-fired City Manager, David Cavazos, tried to convince us last year that crime was going down in Santa Ana?

It turns out they were all lying through their teeth! Homicides in Santa Ana nearly doubled last year as gang-related shootings pushed the number of killings in Santa Ana to 23 homicides – its highest point in six years, according to the O.C. Register. Continue reading→

Former SAPD Police Chief Walters first introduced a gang homicide reward program back in 2007

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Gangs, Guns, Juan Villegas, Paul Walters, Public Safety, Santa Ana 5 Comments

Apparently current SAPD Police Chief Carlos Rojas, who was hired by the Santa Ana City Council despite the fact that he had zero experience running a police department, wants us to believe that he has come up with a solution to the tsunami of gang violence in our city. So tomorrow he is going to face the media, at last, and talk about his new reward program.

But hold the presses – it turns out the SAPD already has a reward program in place for those who give tips about gang-related homicides. That program was put in place by former SAPD Police Chief Paul Walters, who now serves as the Chief of Staff to Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett. Continue reading→

A man was wounded in another shooting early this morning on Santa Ana’s west side

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Juan Villegas, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Shooting at 100 South Mountain View in Santa Ana

On Friday morning, January 27 at about 1 a.m. SAPD police officers responded to the area of 100 South Mountain View after receiving calls about a shooting.

Witnesses reported an altercation between two males and minutes later a male checked into a local hospital for emergency care with a gunshot wound, according to SAPD Case # 17-02529. Continue reading→

Cavazos is out as City Manager and Mouet is now in charge at Santa Ana’s City Hall

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Civic Affairs, David Cavazos, Gerardo Mouet, Santa Ana 4 Comments

City Manager David Cavazos will be relieved of his duties but will receive a severance payout, council members decided Tuesday just a few weeks after he was placed on paid administrative leave by a new council majority, according to the O.C. Register.

The good news is that even though the City will have to pay Cavazos over $315K to take a hike they are replacing him with Gerardo Mouet, who has been running our City’s Parks and Recreation Agency for years. Mouet is already on the payroll so this won’t cost Santa Ana an extra dime. Continue reading→

A new FBI report has verified a major rise in violent crime in Santa Ana last year

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, David Cavazos, Santa Ana 5 Comments

If you live in Santa Ana then it should come as no surprise violent crime increased in our city during the first half of 2016, according to a new FBI report.

Violent crime also increased in Orange, Costa Mesa, and Irvine, but it dropped in Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Garden Grove. Continue reading→

A man in north Santa Ana was wounded by a stray bullet this afternoon

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Man shot at N. Ross and W. 17th in Santa Ana

An unidentified male in his 50’s was driving at about 2:30 p.m. today in the area of W. 17th & N. Ross Streets, in Santa Ana, when he heard multiple gunshots. The man’s vehicle was hit and he was shot to the upper torso, according to SAPD Case # 17-00336.

The unintended victim was taken to a local hospital and is stable. Continue reading→

Police Chief Carlos Rojas wants to know how we feel about the SAPD’s service

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, Santa Ana 1 Comment

Santa Ana Police Dept. to start a Customer Service Survey in 2017

Starting January 2017, the Santa Ana Police Dept. (SAPD) will start a random survey to improve customer service within the Department. On average, the SAPD receives over 10,000 Calls for Service a month. Every month, anyone who places a Call for Service with the SAPD may be selected to participate in the random survey.

  • Surveys will be limited to only individuals reporting Priority 3 through 5 Calls for Service*
  • The SAPD will avoid contacting victims of serious crimes
  • The SAPD will avoid contacting criminal subjects who were arrested

Continue reading→

The new Santa Ana City Council majority has placed our awful City Manager on leave

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Civic Affairs, David Cavazos, Santa Ana 23 Comments

Santa Ana residents got a late Christmas present today as our overpaid and oversexed City Manager, David Cavazos, was placed on paid administrative leave after a 4-0 City Council vote Wednesday afternoon, according to the O.C. Register.

As one might expect Cavazos’ allies on the City Council – Sal Tinajero, David Benavides and Vince Sarmiento, complained about this because they were not at today’s special meeting. Apparently they are all on vacation. Oh well! Even if they were here they could not have stopped this as Mayor Miguel Pulido had four votes on his side. Continue reading→

Will the Santa Ana City Council decide to fire our city manager at their special meeting today?

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Civic Affairs, David Cavazos, Politics, Santa Ana 2 Comments

Overpaid Santa Ana City Manager David Cavazos

Do you remember when Santa Ana Council Member David Benavides called for a special City Council meeting back on Dec. 27, 2012, so he and his Council colleagues could fire our former City Manager, Paul Walters?

Apparently the editors at the Voice of OC have forgotten about that as they are now having a cow because Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido has called for a special City Council meeting for the middle of the workday Wednesday with a single agenda item that could lead to the ouster of City Manager David Cavazos. Continue reading→

The FBI says violent crime is up 51.87% and homicides are up 61.54% in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Carlos Rojas, Crime, FBI, Santa Ana 3 Comments
Benavides and Tinajero left the Public Safety Committee meeting early to go hang out with Gavin Newsom

Benavides and Tinajero left the Public Safety Committee meeting early to go hang out with Gavin Newsom

Did you know that our Santa Ana City Council Members rarely show up for their own public Committee meetings? The Voice of OC published an expose about this here. In that post they revealed that the Santa Ana Public Safety and Neighborhood Improvement Committee meetings on March 22, May 24 and July 26 were all canceled. This in a city that is in the grips of an unprecedented rise in violent crime!

The members of that Committee, which includes Council Members Sal Tinajero and David Benavides, finally held a Public Safety and Neighborhood Improvement Committee meeting yesterday.  Incredibly they had not held a meeting of this Committee since January of this year. Their excuse is that they don’t have time for these meetings because they are a part-time City Council. (Their solution is their Measure PP – which will give them a 700% pay raise). Continue reading→