- What's the biggest thing that has surprised you since becoming chief?

- You are the, you know, the person that keeps the city safe, and so it's a huge responsibility, which I knew for when I, when I took an oath back in 1994.

But as being the Chief, you are responsible for so many lives.

The population, the safety of the city, the wellness of your officers.

And so, and it's busy.

(laughs) It is busy, but I love it.

- When you were named chief last year, of course you were the first Latino police chief, which was a milestone in the city.

A lot of people really celebrated the fact that there was a police chief that looked like them, who spoke Spanish.

Now, that you've been on the job for a year, what impact do you think that's had on the city to have a Latino police chief?

- As a person who grew up in the city of Providence, seeing someone that looks like them, made them think that, you know what, I can do that too.

We come from disadvantaged neighborhoods, and sometimes we feel that we don't have the same advantages as others.

And so when you see someone like me in this position leading this department, knowing that he grew up in this city, I would hope that opens the eyes of our youth to ensure that can tell themselves that, guess what?

I can do that too.

Even though I may face some social disadvantages, some economic distress, some issues that we face in urban inner cities, and so I would hope that they see that they can do it too.

It's just that they gotta stay focused and always stay hungry for their goals.

- Violent crime rose in the city in 2023 after a historically low year in 2022.

There were 54 shootings last year up from 44 in 2022 and 14 homicides, after that number dropped two single digits in 2022.

Why do you think that went up?

And is that the start of an upward trend?

- Violent crime in the city is trending down, overall violent crime.

We talk about robberies, shootings, homicides, rapes, trending down, for years.

So when you look at 14 homicides, one is too many.

Definitely we were higher this year than last year, but we were still below the average reported yearly since 2010.

And so when we look at that data, right, we look at how does it occur?

There's a lot of firearms out there.

86% of the homicides, a firearm was used, and 87% of the victims were males between the ages of 18 and 30, of color.

So there's young men in our city that are getting killed, and they're the ones that are carrying the guns.

And it is unfortunate.

As a person of color who grew up in the city, it's sad to see that.

For me to sit hear and tell you I'm gonna prevent every homicide that occurs is impossible, but we can mitigate a lot of that stuff (sirens wailing) by having different tactics.

And in the past few years, I'll tell you, we have seized 312 guns, the most we have seized since 2010.

- Yeah, I looked at the gun seizure statistics, and that number just keeps going up every single year.

The Providence police are seizing more guns.

So is that because there are more guns on the street to find or because you've allocated more resources to go find them?

- It's a combination of both.

Again, proactive work of policing is needed with any police department.

We also implemented some initiatives, crime reductions in certain certain neighborhoods, certain hotspots has helped out, but without a doubt there's more guns on the street.

And we saw that, right, in 2020 as people, you know, during the pandemic, people were isolated socially, more guns 'cause they were scared, and so we saw a lot more firearms.

- Property crime in the city dropped by 24% last year, driven by decreases in reported larcenies and motor vehicle thefts.

- It's great.

Again, it's a proactive work of the men and women of the Providence Police Department.

Good detective work as well.

We got an outstanding detective division.

Last year alone, we implemented this Digital Intelligence Unit.

They were able to use intelligence, social media, phones, things of that nature to investigate further.

- Something that was driving the property crime numbers was catalytic converter thefts.

- Correct.

- Have those decreased?

- It has.

It has decreased a lot.

Last year, obviously after the law was passed, and when we hold business accountable, recycling business, metal dealers accountable, and now when someone steals a catalyter converter and goes to try and sell it, they gotta provide documentation, and so in essence, I think it helped out a lot.

Plus also the collaboration between different federal agencies, municipalities, the Providence Police Department, the proactive work of detectives, that all helped.

The fact that we stepped up to stay on top of that, it has minimized and lower those numbers.

(sirens wails) - Like many departments, Providence has struggled to recruit officers recently.

Perez says he's hoping to get 60 qualified applicants for this year's police academy class once the rigorous background checks and testing are complete.

Around 400 people applied for a spot, a number that used to be in the thousands.

So 400 is pretty low.

- It's pretty low.

But it's not just Providence.

It is nationwide.

All the municipalities had nobody applied, from what I heard, and so for us, it's a good number.

I'll tell you this is the first time, from what I heard, I just looked at the demographics the other day, that we have more minorities in the process than Caucasians applying for the job, and I don't say that in any way, 'cause I always said it, we come in all different colors, and I grew up with some white guys in South Providence, and they dance better salsa than I do, they do rice and beans is better than I do as well.

And so I think it's important to say that they have the right life experiences to become a police officer.

But I do think that, you know, the fact that we have a high number of minorities applying for the job is telling me that there's an interest, kids from our city thinking about applying and becoming Providence police officers.

And that, to me, is great, because when you grew up in a certain environment, and you want to make a difference in that environment that you grew up in, you have the skills and the talents.

And if we can hire more of those guys and women in this department, that would be great for us.

- Would you consider the department to be short-staffed right now?

- Yes we are.

I think that, you know, the city's growing, we have a lot of events and as you know, this past year we had a lot of different incidents that occur that come up, protests come up, population changes.

It's a great city.

People like to come to the city to enjoy the city, to enjoy the entertainment that happens in the city, and you need sometimes policing.

And unfortunately, we have our challenges.

And so yes, it would be great to be able to have more officers, to be able to have more officers on foot, to be able to create different units to do certain police work that needs to be done in the city.

- I know when the ranks are low, sometimes community policing is what goes out the window, 'cause you don't have as many foot patrols, you don't have as many bike patrols.

Maybe the district commanders are covering multiple districts each.

What is the current status of this community policing program in the department?

- It's still in effect.

That's the mentality of the Province Police department.

We're a model example, and I'm proud to say that the men and women of this department truly believe in that.

And it's not just walking on your beat.

It is not just, you know, like you mentioned, you know, all these extra luxuries that I always called it, to have extra officers, but it's the fact that you have an officer who truly believes in mentoring somebody, adopting a school that's on his post or her post.

They go meet the principals.

They come in and speak to the kids in the schools.

They write a post.

They interact in the summer with the kids that are playing outside in the streets, even though they're in a police car.

That's what community police is about, working with different nonprofits, the lieutenants, themselves, knowing that they need to be part of certain boards in the city.

Every officer has the mentality that they need to integrate themselves for so many reasons, for community policing, as well as legitimizing the department and building trusting relationships in the community.

That's, in my idea, what community policing is about.

- So it's sort of a mindset, but what about the resources that you're putting into it?

How many district commanders do you have at this point?

- Five district commanders.

- For how many districts?

- For nine.

- Nine.

- And so some districts are combined, but we have captains in the patrol division.

So yeah, we are short.

We were short last year.

We are doing a lot with less, and one of my goals is to be able to increase the numbers in the department, and that's what we're striving to do right now.

- Do you wish you could have more school resource officers?

I think you have five right now.

- Five, yeah.

Correct, that's what we have.

And yes, I think definitely good.

It all depends on the principal.

I would always leave that to the principals that need it in the schools.

But I think it is good to be a role model for some of these kids, and when you become an example to kids that are living under difficult circumstances, you could potentially change their life.

I'm a true example of that.

The reason I'm sitting here as a police officer is 'cause a cop talked to me about this profession.

I was boxing at the time and that's how I ended up sort of following it.

And sometimes all it takes is a little bit of luck and the right timing to be able to change your life.

And I think that can happen to anybody.