After all the fanfare surrounding his departure, former Scotts Valley Police Chief Steve Walpole Jr. only ended up spending a few days as a civilian in retirement.
During an exit interview, he’d hinted to the Press Banner he might pick up a consulting gig in the private sector at some point, but he said the draw to return to public service was just too strong.
After some arm-twisting from the top law enforcement official over at the University of California Santa Cruz, he opted to become the No. 2 over at the well-regarded college in the redwoods.
He’s just a captain over there, which suits him quite well, now that his son—who’s named after him and his father—is an undergraduate student himself.
The chief at UCSC told him he’ll have to do more than 40 hours some weeks, since he’s on salary there.
Why didn’t he just say, “No. I’m retired now”?
“I didn’t want to sit on the couch all day,” he said. “I enjoy doing the work. And I’m too young to actually retire. This gives me the opportunity to do something different. I’ve worked for small cities my entire career, and now I get to try my hand at the university system. It’s a different system and a different way of looking at law enforcement. It’s been a challenge, but an enjoyable time—so far.”
While UCSC officials were pushing to get him onboard prior to his retirement, Walpole said he wasn’t brought on the payroll until November—after he’d handed in his badge at the Scotts Valley HQ on Oct. 31.
The Press Banner spoke with Walpole during the Light Up the Night holiday party at the Scotts Valley Community Center in December.
Minutes earlier, Bobbie Ward of Performance Vocals had just announced that her son, Blake Robert Ward, a former Scotts Valley High School student, would be staring in the wholesome Hallmark reality dating show “Second Chance Love,” which filmed in Italy and started streaming on Hallmark+ on New Year’s Day.
That show—based around couples seeking to rekindle an old flame (including Ward and Camille Castro, from Santa Cruz)—is hosted by TLC singer Chilli and her boyfriend, actor Matthew Lawrence. It’s been getting positive reviews on online forums.
The Press Banner asked Walpole if he was excited to participate in the sort of enforcement that was depicted in a different reality show—MTV’s “Busted,” which debuted in 2008 and was similar to “Cops,” but on college campuses. (Famously, the crew of that production was present during a tasing incident that led to the death of 23-year-old Gabriel Bitterman.)
“Here in Scotts Valley, we have so many people that are from out of the city and driving through the city,” he said. “And there, if you’re going to UCSC—it’s sort of a dead end…So, it’s not nearly as much criminal activity that’s going on. But unfortunately, at UCSC we’ve been getting significantly more sexual assault crimes—things going sideways after parties or meeting strangers.”
That’s been a big disappointment for Walpole, who presided over a department with single-digit rape figures.
“The thing I really appreciate about UCSC is they have a lot of services for people who go through those kinds of events,” he said. “So, they have behavioral health units; they have the Title 9 office; they have a civil rights division; they have counselors on hand. If you go through something like that, the school tries to take care of (the victims).”
What’s it like for him to go from the more conservative end of the county to one of the most progressive higher education sites in America—where more than half of the property is located in the City of Santa Cruz, which has decriminalized the use of psilocybin?
“It seems like if there’s a problem, we’ll deal with it,” he said. “Like, an odd call we had recently, somebody had taken some psychedelic mushrooms and decided on their own that they were going to climb a large tree. They went up like 80 feet…and then he fell and hit like eight branches all the way down, which slowed him down enough, and then landed in the duff…He survived, but he was gravely injured. It was a weird call, because I hadn’t seen that in Scotts Valley. I’m like, ‘That’s not a normal call. Kids are experimenting with drugs.’”
