ALAMOSA – When George Dingfelder is introduced as Alamosa Police Department’s (APD) new Chief of Police, one of the first things that is mentioned is the amount of time he’s spent in law enforcement.

And for good reason.

Over the course of 35 years, Dingfelder has gone from serving in the Military Police in the U.S. Army to spending 25 years with the Colorado State Patrol where he rose to the rank of Major overseeing 17 counties, including the six that make up the San Luis Valley. He then transitioned to hiring on as Police Chief of the Monte Vista Police Department (MVPD) and now, after four years with MVPD, he’s stepped in as APD’s top cop.

When asked why the change and why now, he starts at the beginning, “I’ve lived in the Valley off and on for 29 years. After getting out of the military, I joined the Colorado State Patrol. You have to work for two years before you can transfer in State Patrol and I thought, boy, as soon as those two years are up, I’m going back to Colorado Springs. I’d been stationed there at Fort Carson.”

It wasn’t long before Dingfelder’s mind was changed. The San Luis Valley reminded him of growing up in Miles City, Mont., a small town located at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Tongue Rivers.

“I love rural America,” he says. “Easily 99.5% of the people are really, really good people.”

Seeking a “different mission” prompted the move from the State Patrol to Monte Vista Police Department. Timing and opportunity prompted the move from Monte Vista to Alamosa.

“I felt like we had accomplished some good things in Monte Vista. It was in a really good place with good officers and a good department.  I’ve lived here in Alamosa for six years. The Alamosa Police Department is a very, very busy agency. This was an excellent opportunity and, when it came up, I thought it was time.”

When Dingfelder speaks about law enforcement, the same core themes surface, including public safety and being responsive to the community. 

“There are always people who don’t like it so much when people say ‘we pay your salary’ but, well, they do. We work for the citizens and the visitors while they’re here, so we need to be responsive.  

“Yes, responding quickly is part of that but also so is being willing to have conversations, even when we disagree. Sometimes, those conversations are hard, but that’s part of the job.”  Dingfelder, who is not a fan of social media, adds that he would greatly prefer to have those conversations face to face. 

Another core theme involves building trust with the community, something he says was greatly enhanced with body cameras.

“Bodycams take out the subjectivity,” he says. “Of course, it’s not the catch all. You still have to document an incident well, but, as far as public trust, having footage from a body cam says, ‘This is what it shows. This is what happened.’”

Dingfelder readily admits that sometimes bodycams sometimes reveal things about a police department that are not good, which he says is exactly one of the reasons to have them in existence. But, equally true, he says, is that they show actions that prove something else.

“In every profession there are bad apples, and, unfortunately, we all get lumped into that. But, for the majority of departments across the country, we’re doing it right and bodycams confirm that. I think that makes it one of the biggest gamechangers in how we solve problems and they help a lot to build public trust.”

Dingfelder is also a strong believer in the co-responder program, which he views as the second “game changer” he’s seen in law enforcement.

“The co-responder program here…they did a phenomenal job of getting that up and running.”

When asked if, in his new position, he plans on making any changes at APD, Dingfelder answers the question in general terms.

“I’m not a big fan of making changes just to make changes,” he says. “This is not about me, at all. It can never be about me. This is about doing what’s right for the community and having a well-trained and professional police force. And you can accomplish that by making sure you have the right standards and the right policies in place.”

Police chiefs are often driven by priorities they have set but, in Dingfelder’s case, he also sees great importance in including the priorities of the community in making those decisions.

“This morning I stopped at the gas station,” he says, “and what was intended to be five minutes in and out turned into a 30-minute conversation with people catching me. Three out of four asked what are we going to do about drugs? So, that tells me that’s a very high priority for the community to get the drugs under control. It won’t happen overnight but that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

In any community, he says, drugs are going to play a role in crime rate, whether it’s violent crime or burglaries or shoplifting.

“Drugs really drive a lot of that. It’s a huge business. But I think we’ve had some pretty good successes in Monte Vista because of the strategies we used, which involved using our federal partners – like DEA [Drug enforcement Administration] and ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]. We targeted the violent criminals and the high-level drug dealers. I’m not saying we should ever use federal resources to target drug dealers on the street because that’s not what it’s for. Those federal resources are for targeting those bringing in the drugs that are poisoning the community.”

He also sees great success and promise in collaboration among law enforcement agencies in the Valley, something he acknowledges APD and MVPD have done for quite a while.

“We’ve already seen what can happen when we collaborate. We can make a real difference. Alamosa Police Department was very instrumental in helping the detectives in Monte Vista target some of the higher-level dealers.”

And that brings the conversation back to the Alamosa Police Department to whom he is already committed and for whom he has nothing but high praise.

“At the municipal level, you can’t stay focused on just one thing, whether it’s homeless issues, drug issues or violent crimes. Being an administrator is just being an administrator, as far as how you allocate resources and things like that.

“But the big thing is to trust the people you’re working with and doing things right and that means giving them the training to do their job.

“There are phenomenal people here. Captain Maestas and those detectives are absolutely some of the best investigators I’ve worked with. There are phenomenal individuals here who are doing really good things and doing it right.

“Coming here was a great opportunity to help the community. I have a lot to learn but this is just a great opportunity.”