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Salinas Police Bid Farewell to Six Retiring Officers

SALINAS, Calif. - The wave of violence comes after the Salinas police department said goodbye to six of their top officers Thursday who are retiring.

They are Commander Dino Bardoni, Sergeant Don Cline, Sergeant Victoria Gray, Corporal Kyle Kimm, Officer Dave Yates and Officer Vicky Burnett. In total, they've given 134 years of service combined.

"I can't say I won't miss it, I don't miss it," says Sgt. Don Cline.

Cline has worked for Salinas police for 31 and half years. Out of the six retiring, he's served the longest and many of those hours were spent investigating homicides. So, news of this recent string of violence hit hard.

"There was a tugging at my professional character that wondered what the leads were," says Cline. "How we worked the case. That's ingrained with you and as a police officer that will never go away."

Salinas Police Chief Louis Fetherolf admits losing them is even harder.

"We will get by," says Fetherolf. "We have a lot to do, they are working hard at it. As you see, the homicide and violence rate has been drastically reduced, but it is still a problem in our community."

But, he understands these officers have served their time. Fetherolf says, the department's now hiring two more officers to keep their officer count at 158.

But, these officers won't be far. Many of them are becoming reserve officers, including Sgt. Cline.

"The fact that I'm retiring today, and the homicides that occurred doesn't change the police department's response" says Cline. "They are very competent people that are taking my place that will hopefully do a better job than I did."

If you're wondering about their retirement package, these officers will retire at three percent of their salary for every year they served. For example, those who have served 30 years will be able to retire with about 90 percent of their salary.