Inquiries about how often the police are called to the library
to deal with unsupervised minors remains unanswered.
A critical component of police work is communicating with the community that the police serve. A critical component of good citizenship is holding public officials and employees accountable.

Unfortunately, both are being diminished in Gilroy thanks to an insular, non-communicative culture that pervades the Gilroy Police Department. And it’s a culture that starts at the top.

When the newspaper asked Gilroy Police Chief Gregg Giusiana for his perspective on disturbing crime statistics, he was unavailable for a week, asked for questions to be e-mailed, then failed to respond for several days.

The newspaper was asking important questions on behalf of all Gilroyans, whose taxes pay the police chief’s salary, including his post-secret retirement double-dipping. Gilroyans deserve to hear from the city’s top law enforcement official on any police matter, but especially on stories headlined “Crime Up, Arrests Down.”

Not only that, the hardworking police officers of the Gilroy Police Department deserve a chief who speaks on their behalf to the residents they serve.

Late last year, after the GPD failed to reveal a rape near downtown Gilroy for six long weeks, Giusiana acknowledged the error, telling the editorial board, “We screwed up,” and promising that things would change.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

After a recent stabbing and carjacking incident, police spokesman Sgt. Jim Gillio refused to provide basic details about the crime, including, quoting from reporter Emily Alpert’s story, questions about “how many suspects were involved, whether a weapon was recovered, whether the victims were from Gilroy, and whether any forensic evidence had been found.”

The newspaper learned about the discovery of a deceased man not from the police, with whom reporters are in regular contact, but from a passerby.

Inquiries about how often the police are called to the library to deal with unsupervised minors remain unanswered.

These are all important issues that affect the community, and they deserve to know what’s happening and how the police are handling them.

Current City Council members who understand that the police work for the residents of Gilroy can show that they grasp this concept by directing their part-time, double-dipping police chief to change the no-communication culture at the GPD immediately.

Anything less is a grave disservice to Gilroyans and the hardworking officers they employ.

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