By John Asbury
The Press Enterprise
HEMET, Calif. — Richard Dana spent his career leading police officers through tragedy and turmoil.
During his tenure with Riverside police, he oversaw an internal affairs investigation into a shooting that splintered the city. He finished his career as chief of the Hemet Police Department just as a series of attacks on officers ended.
During a nearly 47-year career, Dana was never one to stand by quietly behind a desk.
Placed on medical leave since September, he was given the choice last month of a desk job or retirement. Dana, 67, said if he couldn’t be part of the chase, he’d rather hand in his badge.
He said that although police work can be dangerous, it’s all he’s known.
“I’ve always felt safer standing in the darkness than out in daylight,” the folksy, honest-to-a-fault former chief said in a Hemet diner last week, reflecting over past cases. “Why do you want to stand on a bridge minutes before it’s about to collapse? That’s not normal. But it’s the same drive that’s not going to change when I retire.”
Since September, 18-year Hemet police veteran Dave Brown has been acting chief. With Dana retired, Brown’s title will become interim chief. Hemet City Manager Brian Nakamura said the city is not currently planning to conduct an active search for a permanent chief.
“Chief Dana has done a tremendous job for this city and given his career to public safety,” Nakamura said.
Dana was placed on medical leave after fracturing a vertebra in his back while climbing on the roof at the site of one of the attacks against Hemet police in June. He didn’t seek treatment for the injuries until the investigation was completed, months later.
He has spent his time since then grading a 9-acre horse farm south of the city, including two plots of land he plans to give to his daughters. It’s the same property where someone shot a bullet through his mailbox last spring.
“I do not plan to just sit back there and raise vegetables and horses; I plan on getting involved,” Dana said of his retirement plans. “I want to be part of this valley and this city.”
Riverside
Dana grew up in a military family and moved frequently as a child. He credits his thick southern drawl to his wife.
He joined the Riverside County sheriff’s academy in 1964 and transferred to the Riverside Police Department in 1971.
In his 35 years with that department, he was once shot in the leg, and knew of 10 fellow officers killed in the line of duty. He spearheaded officer survival training, acquired bullet-resistant vests for the department in the 1970s and formed SWAT training in the 1980s.
He also led the investigations of the city’s most controversial police shooting in recent decades.
On Dec. 28, 1998, Dana was called to a Unocal 76 gas station in Riverside where four officers had fired into a locked car, killing Tyisha Miller, a 19-year-old black woman who had been unconscious or asleep with a gun in her lap.
The department called on Dana to steer the internal affairs investigation into the shooting. The incident sharply divided the city, triggering racially charged protests that included a march on Highway 91.
Dana also led the department’s response to state and federal investigations that led to changes mandated by the state attorney general and the first Citizen’s Police Review Commission.
“It’s not something I’d wish on anyone,” Dana said. "… What happened with Tyisha Miller was a tragedy for everyone and it forever changed Riverside.”
Hemet
In August 2006, Dana was selected as Hemet’s police chief. He left Riverside with lofty goals of expanding the Hemet police force and antiquated station.
Those plans were quickly curbed by a shrinking budget.
Near the same time that layoffs cut the force by a third, Dana also had to cope with a spike in crime, the brutal slaying of a Hemet teenager in November 2009, and a series of attacks on officers that began in December 2009.
“The time in Hemet was a tumultuous time. It was a time of severe cuts, reduced police officers and major incidents attracting nationwide press,” Dana said. “It was a traumatic last couple years to get everyone through everything and still keep one’s sanity.”
A homicide on Bluejay Way was one of the most haunting of his career, he said. The charred remains of 17-year-old Adrian Rios were found buried in the backyard of Jose Campos.
Campos was caught five months later in Mexico. Dana said police intercepted a request for money and wired Campos cash as a ploy so that Mexican authorities and marshals could capture him.
That investigation was at its height at the same time officers were being targeted by attacks. Dana was always one of the first on the scene and said he spent many sleepless nights standing with his officers. A suspect, Nicholas Smit, has been linked to five of the incidents, police say.
Still, Dana worked to assure the public that Hemet continues to be safe.
“This town didn’t change overnight and it’s not unsafe. People want their hometown life like when they left it,” Dana said. “The people in this city are very lucky. There are a lot of police officers who live here that truly care about them.”
Copyright 2011 The Press Enterprise, Inc.