San Diego State alumnus Manuel Guaderrama spoke at the last of three open forums held for the SDSU Police Department’s Chief of Police on Thursday, Feb. 13.

Guaderrama has more than 30 years of experience at the San Diego Police Department and currently works as the captain of the Northwestern Division.

His first goal to improve the SDSUPD is to create community-oriented policing.

“What it means is establishing good community relations,” Guaderrama said.

He said he wants to include all stakeholders involved in campus safety, such as Associated Students and the Greek community.

“I think it’s important to understand where the community is coming from so that when you go back to the police department, you can start developing priorities that take the community in mind,” Guaderrama said.

He addressed the cell phone theft issue on camp3sa us when he introduced his next goal of expanding collaboration. Guaderrama said there have been incidents where the SDSU police are unable to track down stolen phones that have been located by the student because of insufficient resources.

Expanding collaboration can help solve these issues, Guaderrama said.

“Just because it’s a small agency doesn’t mean it can’t be a leader,” Guaderrama said.

He said using information efficiently is important for the policing process. Analyzing data and information would be one of his top priorities if selected.

He was attracted to SDSU because he’s always believed education is the key to success.

“To have the opportunity to be a chief of the police department here and be involved in the education process would be a great win for me,” Guaderrama said. “I think I can have an impact here.”