Acting police chief in San Luis assumes post on permanent basis
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Arturo Ramos, the acting chief of this city's police department since May, now has the position permanently.
The San Luis City Council, with two members absent Wednesday, voted 5-0 approved a full-time contract with Ramos that will pay him an annual salary of $95,000.
“I feel very proud to be in San Luis,” said Ramos, a former Phoenix detective who came to the Arizona border in September 2011 to serve as second-in-command of the department under then-Chief Eddie Munoz.
“I love the community,” he added. “The people support you and they're kind and nice.”
Mayor Gerardo Sanchez said Ramos has brought stability to a department that has had three chiefs in the past two years.
“It was clear even before he was hired,” he said. “He has shown that he is straightforward and disciplined.”
Those qualities, Sanchez added, are reflected in the personnel of the department.
“I can clearly see the improved morale of the police officers. ... I can see that they are happy.”
Ramos said his first goal will be increase the number of officers in the department in order to be able to safeguard the growing border city.
“We have 41 officers, and we need 10 more,” he said. “The council is supportive, but we need more (officers) in the budget.”
Another goal, he said, will be easing traffic congestion on Main Street during the winter agricultural season as farm workers travel between the two countries. But he said traffic control efforts cannot take away from the department's efforts to provide security elsewhere in the city.
Yet another goal will be stepping up efforts to curb what he says is a high rate of domestic violence in San Luis.
Ramos was recruited to San Luis by Munoz, with whom he had served in the Phoenix Police Department.
Last May, less than an year into his job, Munoz resigned as police chief under mutual agreement with the city.
Munoz had followed Rick Flores, a Texas sheriff who resigned as police chief in early 2011 after being unable to gain state certification as an Arizona peace officer.
