Behind the Badge
Sgt. Jon Radus has had a variety of assignments during his 13-year career with the Fullerton Police Department.
His next one will begin Monday, July 18, when Radus becomes the FPD’s new public information officer.
Radus is replacing Sgt. Kathryn Hamel, who served as PIO for the past two years and is moving to the Property Crimes Unit.
Among the duties of a PIO, Radus often will be the voice of the department in dealing with the media, making statements on anything from a major arrest to an officer-involved shooting.
“I’ve always been in proactive positions, so this will be a little bit different,” said Radus, who is bilingual and has a business degree from UC Berkeley.
Radus inherited his passion for law enforcement from his father, who was a reserve officer with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department for 27 years.
The new assignments are among a series of changes that are part of the department’s biannual shift change, which involves moving personnel into new positions.
In order to prepare current supervisors for jobs as future lieutenants, Fullerton Police Chief Dan Hughes periodically reassigns sergeants to oversee different units within the department.
“It really has to do with developing our personnel,” Hughes said. “We need to be developing our employees to be ready for the next step.”
For Radus, the PIO position will be a new experience, but one for which he is well prepared.
The husband and father of three started in patrol, and then moved to the FPD’s Echo Unit, which maintains order on weekend nights in the city’s bar-laden downtown.
He worked as a detective in the Gang Unit, was a field training officer, a member of the North County SWAT team and is among a select few Drug Recognition Expert Instructors in the state.
Many of these roles involved community engagement and public speaking, Radus said.
He’ll be doing both as PIO.
“In the last 14 years, there has never been one day where I said, ‘I don’t want to go to work today,’” Radus said. “I’ve never done anything like this in law enforcement. I’m up for the challenge.”
Starting at the Patrol Bureau shift change July 16, the following personnel changes go into effect:
Supervisory changes:
Lieutenants Mike Chlebowski and Andrew Goodrich, along with Sergeants Kevin Craig, Mike Hines, Dan Castillo and Tony Bogart, will be assigned to Patrol.
Lt. Tom Oliveras will be assigned to Traffic.
Lt. Mike Chocek to Investigations
Sgt. John Ema to Family Crimes
Sgt. Kathryn Hamel to Property Crimes
Sgt. John Radus to Community Service
Sgt. Steve Williams to Professional Standards
Cpl. Joel Craft will be promoted to sergeant and assigned to Patrol
Rank-and-file changes:
Cpl. David MacShane to Patrol
Cpl. Mike McCaskill to Family Crimes
Cpl. Ginny Johnson to Patrol as a Homeless Liaison Officer
Officer Chris Murphy to Property Crimes
Officer Kevin Kirkreit to Patrol
Cpl. Ryan O’Neil to the Professional Standards Bureau as a Personnel Officer
