By Mary O’KEEFE

The new chief of the Burbank Police Dept. has deep roots in the area as he moves from a Glendale police captain to leading the BPD.

Rafael Quintero, formerly with Glendale Police Dept., was announced as the new Burbank chief of police on Feb. 26. He began his new job in April. Quintero replaced retiring police chief Michael Albanese. 

“Captain Quintero is a dedicated and forward-thinking law enforcement professional who values community-focused policing and meaningful engagement with staff. He brings an innovative approach, fresh energy, collaborative spirit and a deep commitment to public safety, ensuring a strong connection with both the community and the department. His leadership and experience make him well-suited to lead the Burbank Police Department into the future,” said Burbank City Manager Justin Hess in a statement. “We are excited to welcome him to our City and look forward to the positive impact he will have in keeping Burbank a safe and thriving community.”

Quintero had considered serving as a chief of police and once he heard of Chief Albanese’s retirement, he felt this was the right time to apply. 

“I really love the City of Glendale, and love the command staff,” Quintero said.

But when the opportunity came about he knew it was time. He spoke to several others in the emergency response field for guidance and all were encouraging.

“I think I started getting excited about applying toward the end of the [2024] year,” he said. 

One of the signs that guided him was that this position was in Burbank, a city that Glendale Police Dept. works with often. 

Quintero began his law enforcement career in San Jose in 1999.

“I was there for two years before coming back home and applying for Glendale,” he said. “I started with [GPD] in 2001.”

While in Glendale his experience included working in the Gang Unit, with SWAT [Special Weapons and Tactics], as a sergeant in the Traffic Bureau, as a Traffic Bureau commander, overseeing the K-9 Bureau and Special Enforcement Detail. He was promoted to the rank of captain with GPD over two years ago. 

“The responsibility [with] patrol gives you a kind of perspective,” he said. “My responsibility was overseeing the Patrol Bureau and Jail Bureau [as well as] overseeing our training and field training officer program,” he said. 

He had a total of 160 people under his command in Glendale, which is about equal to the number of personnel in Burbank. 

The facts that GPD works so closely with BPD and being located next door worked well for Quintero.

“[Burbank] seems familiar for a variety of reasons,” he said. “In the early 2000s when I was working the Gang Unit, my current command staff was also working the Gang Unit over here in Burbank. So I have relationships with [BPD] going back 20 plus years.” 

He thinks that being so familiar with the City of Burbank made him an attractive candidate for the position of chief. Glendale may be a larger city but overall there are several similarities, he added. 

Although Quintero has only been on the job for a few weeks he does know some of the areas in Burbank that need to be focused on by BPD. 

“One is traffic, two is homelessness and three is [burglary] crime,” he said.

Specifically he feels the need to focus on residential, business and organized retail crime with attention on South American theft groups. 

“About a year ago across the region [including LA County] agencies and Orange County agencies were experiencing a significant increase in organized retail crime,” he said. 

These crimes were traced to South American crews. California Highway Patrol has worked with local law enforcement organizations on this issue, with successful arrests being made. 

Recently BPD announced the arrest of seven people who are allegedly part of a South American Theft Group (SATG) in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Quintero said this collaborative investigation included local, state and federal agencies as well as those from other states including Oregon and Washington. An investigation found SATG was moving to Arizona and Scottsdale police was contacted, which arrested gang members who were allegedly involved in burglaries in Mesa and Tempe, Arizona. 

BPD,  like the majority of law enforcement agencies across the country, is working on recruitment. 

“We are aggressively and consistently recruiting. Right now I have a 5% vacancy rate, which means I have about eight positions that I need to [fill],” he said. 

That doesn’t include staff openings or any positions that will become available through attrition this year. 

Quintero lets people who are looking for a career in law enforcement that Burbank is a “great organization” and that it has the support of the community and elected officials. 

“This agency is very fortunate to have the level of training, equipment and tools to make [officers] successful and safe,” he added.