By Julia Goldman 

Riverside Community College District Chief of Police Christopher Cano plans on ensuring the safety of students and faculty on-campus through training and equipment to respond to potential threats and establishing a relationship between RCC police and its community. 

Cano has worked in public service for 39 years in his hometown El Monte, Calif. 

He began his career in emergency medicine as an Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), moved in to be a paramedic and later a reserve firefighter.  

Cano became inspired to shield others from the same experiences he witnessed and shifted from emergency medicine into law enforcement. 

For the past 26 years, Cano has worked within municipal law enforcement as a police officer, corporal, sergeant and lieutenant. 

In his time in the El Monte Police Force Cano claimed to have worked every assignment a police officer can work, from motor officer, to detective, to internal affairs and SWAT. 

Cano has also received a certificate in emergency management, a masters in public administration and is in the process of completing his doctoral degree in public administration. 

Cano said that it’s his mission to keep the students and faculty safe. 

“That’s our fundamental responsibility,” he said. “That is my first goal to meet that expectation.”

Chief Cano seeks to fulfill his mission by empowering and ensuring that officers know what to do in a potentially dangerous situation and can act without their leaders through training. 

Secondly, he seeks to acquire better gear for the department, specifically updated safety equipment. 

Cano also said that mental health workers are for accomplishing his goal. “We can’t do this alone,” Cano said. “We need social workers.”

He spoke about the importance of establishing a relationship with the community.

He said he seeks to acknowledge the publics’ feelings on law enforcement, mend the relationships and work in tandem with the community to meet their needs and make effective changes.

“We should be asking the community how they want to be policed,” Cano said. “We should be partners in this.”