Gilbert PD chief discusses department changes, teen violence prevention

GILBERT, AZ (AZFamily) — Almost one year after the East Valley saw an uptick in teen violence, the Gilbert Police chief sat down for an exclusive interview with Arizona’s Family to discuss lessons learned and department changes.

Chief Michael Soelberg faced criticism regarding the department’s approach to teen violence incidents, and he admitted mistakes were made. He says Preston Lord’s death nearly one year ago set off a wave of not only teen violence investigations but also internal investigations within Gilbert PD.

“We have had some in our review of all of these cases where mistakes were made, things could have been handled better. We have initiated complaints on those; some of those are still ongoing, and some of those have been resolved,” he said. “Things left out of reports that shouldn’t have been left out were not intentional. I’d say more technicalities if you will.”

Soelberg said the department is working to make changes to ensure something like this does not happen again. One of the biggest issues they found was with communication.

“There was a little bit of a disconnect at times where patrol was trying to actively find suspects and those cases had been inactivated, rather than going to the detectives,” he said. “So we made sure we improved that process so that they can continue the investigation. If patrol can’t close that out, bring it to the detectives so we can further that investigation and hold everyone accountable.”

Arizona’s Family reporter Alexis Dominguez asked the chief, “What has it been like trying to regain the community’s trust personally and as a department?”

He said his focus has always been on keeping the community safe and that the department will continue to do so. Soelberg said that crime is down 10% in Gilbert from last year and that the city has not seen any teen violence cases since March.

He also mentioned that being in tune with the youth in the community and knowing what’s going on plays an important role in teen violence prevention.

“We notice trends in different parts of the city and always adjust to those. Earlier this year, we began focusing on the Heritage District in the parking garages. We started seeing up ticks of crimes being committed there and people hanging out. What we’re trying to do is prevent that from happening. Part of it is education. Part of it is being visible,” he said.

Being visible is part of what’s driving the department’s three-week operation while the three school districts in Gilbert are on fall break.

“Focusing on where kids tend to congregate, any parties, looking for DUIs, looking for any drug violations, looking for any fights, violence, looking for where they are congregating. We want to be active and proactive, making sure they don’t get into trouble and aren’t committing any crimes,” he said.

The department said in addition to their day-to-day operations, they will focus on weekends and parties.

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