SANTA MARIA - Central Coast News has obtained a copy of an e-mail sent to all of the members of the Santa Maria Police Officers Association, the union that represents more than 100 SMPD sworn officers and support staff.
In the email, POA members are encouraged to attend Tuesday night's City Council meeting wearing their POA shirts as a show of solidarity in the aftermath of the shooting death of fellow officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. on January 29.
The e-mail also informs members the issue of confidence in the command staff of the Santa Maria Police Department will be discussed at next week's POA general membership meeting.
In an exclusive interview with your Central Coast News, Santa Maria Police Chief Dan Macagni acknowledged the shooting death of Officer Covarrubias by a fellow officer has taken a toll on the department.
"These types of incidents usually do, this is part of the dynamics that happen, again its everybody trying to have an understanding of what happened, why it happened, there's always going to be some second guessing going on it does cause some internal issues", Chief Macagni says, "I had an all hands meeting with all of my employees last week and I just asked them for their patience and objectivity until all of these investigations can be completed and then we can fall back and regroup and review and if there are things we need to change we'll change, but you can't change the facts of what transpired and what brought us to this point today."
The leaked e-mail also lets POA members know a union representative has been meeting privately with the father of Officer Covarrubias to talk about the POA's position on the shooting and the family's frustration over a lack of answers to the questions they have about the shooting.
Not everyone is on the same page with the union leadership.
Some POA members say they want to wait until independent investigations into the Covarrubias shooting, and all SMPD policies and practices, are completed before they even discuss confidence in department administration.
