Monday afternoon in front of a packed City Council chambers, Lori Luhnow, a 27-year veteran of the San Diego Police Department, was sworn in as Santa Barbara’s new chief of police. Her officers clapped loudly alongside councilmembers and public safety brass as her fiancé pinned the chief’s shield to her uniform. Luhnow thanked her Eastside neighbors for their warm welcome and teared up as she talked about the support of her three brothers and sister in the audience.
Luhnow becomes Santa Barbara’s top cop at an intensely volatile time for law enforcement. A block away at the downtown post office, the flag flew at half-staff for the three officers killed in Baton Rouge on Sunday. Less than two weeks earlier, the stars and stripes were lowered after the murder of five Dallas officers. But Luhnow, who oversaw investigative and training divisions during her decorated San Diego career, believes earnestly in community policing as a way to bridge the expanding gulf of distrust between the public and police. It’s more than a buzzword, she said; it’s a measurable method of law enforcement that humanizes both sides of the thin blue line.
Luhnow sat down with The Santa Barbara Independent shortly before she took the oath of office. What follows is an edited version of our conversation.