Meet Maj. Hector Velez, the New District 1 Commander of the Prince George's County Police

Maj. Hector Velez may be the newest denizen of the District 1 Commander's office, but he's hardly a rookie when it comes to the Prince George's County Police. Major Velez has been with the PGPD since 1994 and has worked in divisions from Financial Crimes to Planning and Research. Most recently, he served as the assistant commander of the Bureau of Patrols. Now he's pleased to be back in District 1, where he kicked off his career in patrol nearly 20 years ago. Patch sat down with Major Velez on Thursday to discuss his new position.

Patch: I know you’ve just started, but what are you most looking forward to accomplishing in your capacity as District 1 commander?

MHV: Diving back into the community. Really. When I was here for that three-year timespan, my cell phone rang constantly, my email was constantly going off. I got calls at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning. When I left the district station, I kept looking at my Blackberry thinking something was wrong. What I realized that I missed the most was interacting with the community, and being involved with the officers. I was willing to give up my 9 to 5 days, weekends off, zero responsibility after 5 o’clock for 24/7 community involvement ... which is basically what it is – 24/7.

Patch: Residents have said that there’s been a spike in crime in College Park. Do you have a game plan to try and combat crime in the community?

MHV: We do. I haven’t had a chance to do any historical fact-finding, but I do know we've had issues with breaking and enterings in College Park and things like that, and that when the students go away, that’s when we usually have a big rush. But one of the things that Colonel Davis has done, obviously with the blessing of Chief Magaw, is we’ve created an additional unit within our investigation section.

As it stood, our investigation section was one lieutenant that oversaw property crimes, persons crimes, COPS division – it’s a huge, huge unit. So what we’ve done is brought in an additional lieutenant and divided our investigation section. Now we have one lieutenant that oversees general crimes —  burglaries, assaults and things like that. And then we have an enforcement unit — one lieutenant that oversees what we call two special assignment teams — a robbery suppression team, and an auto theft investigators. Those guys are the ones that look at our hot spot trends and then go out and try to figure out who's responsible. Typically it's a few people that are responsible for a large amount of crime. So having that extra team on board allows the other lieutenant to now focus on the general crimes, which include burglaries and things like that.

Patch: I know that Major Liberati and Chief Mitchell with the University of Maryland police were said to have had a good working relationship. What is your relationship with Chief Mitchell and the rest of the university police like?

MHV: Actually, Chief Mitchell pinned my badge on in 1994. I’ve been in touch with him; we’re going to sit down and meet, and I reminded him of that fact that he pinned on my badge. I got my master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, and Chief Mitchell taught one of my classes there. So we do know each other, and I’m looking forward to working with him. I mean, he was the chief that pinned my badge on, and now, I have the opportunity to partner with him. But it’s also a good opportunity for me to learn from him.

Patch: I know the county police have been making an effort to associate better with students, like September’s event. Do you have any ideas for what you might do?

MHV: Obviously, I know it’s important, and it's something I’m going to do, but considering I’ve only been here three days ... [laughs]. I think that with the university here, there should be more interaction ... I think we need to have command officers going in and talking about various issues, and listening — not only us talking, but hearing feedback. I think opening lines of communication is very, very important.

Patch: What do you anticipate being one of your biggest challenges?

MHV: I think one of the biggest challenges across the board is building that trust. Because as you know, it takes one little thing to destroy. It’s like matchsticks — you move one and the entire thing comes tumbling down. With the university in particular, you have students graduating and leaving every year. So it’s a constant effort. It’s not like a regular community where you have your residents who have been there for 30 years and they know you; they know they can trust you. With the students here, with them leaving, you constantly have to work on that. And I know Major Liberati has done great things. I know I have big shoes to fill. But the one thing I would say is that the students are the community. And anybody that comes in ignoring that isn’t really seeing the full picture.

Patch: How do you plan to improve upon what has been done by your predecessors?

MHV: The first thing is looking at what has been done in the past. And then thinking outside of the box, and reaching out to the student body. Because I can come up with all of the ideas in the world, and none of them could appeal to anyone. So I think one of the important things is finding out from the students’ perspective, what is important to them in terms of student-police relations. That’s got to be part of it. I don’t want this to come across as being callous, but that buy-in has to be there. You have to find out who your stakeholders are, and you have to find out what’s important to them and see how you can cater to that while having them understand your perspective, and meeting halfway.