Port Arthur Police Chief Tim Duriso isn’t one to just sit behind his desk.

“I like to get out of the office,” Duriso, who began as chief the first week of September, said. “I like to go to community meetings, I like to visit different apartment complexes and see what the needs are and talk to people.”

Duriso got his start in law enforcement with the Port Arthur Police Department. He said he knows there are excellent officers there and when he had the opportunity to come back to lead the department, he jumped on it.

“I was raised in Port Arthur, not as a kid but as a law enforcement officer, narcotics officer, detective, patrol supervisor of each division,” Duriso said on why he applied for the position. “It seemed like the perfect fit.

Duriso replaced previous chief Patrick Melvin, who resigned after less than two years.

Duriso said it’s not his style to say anything negative about the last chief.

“I know it’s a tough job,” he said. “And until you walk in somebody’s shoes, you don’t know.”

Duriso worked for PAPD for 13 years before moving on to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, where his last title was supervisory special agent.

Changes being made

The PAPD had been understaffed for a while as people left or retired. That is changing.

A police exam was given recently and Duriso plans to hire about eight people from that testing. He said he will also create a mental health division in the future.

Five officers were sent to mental health training and when staffing evens out in the department, there will be at least one trained officer per shift.

The department is also reviewing issues with the sex offender program to more closely track sex offenders.

Violent crimes will also be an area of focus for the department, he said.

The city has experienced 13 homicides in 2018 as of Friday, some of which remain unsolved. Duriso said there is no pattern other than a “non-pattern.”

For example, there was the fatal shooting of Michael Thomas, 56, who was homeless and suffered from a mental illness, at a washateria and there was the fatal shooting of Kevin Nguyen, 33, of Nederland on Pleasure Island. Duriso has met with concerned fishermen and island residents as well as speaking with Pleasure Island Advisory Board Chairman John Beard, board commissioner Reginald Trainer and executive director Jimmy Dike.

Police patrol has been increased on the island and a sheriff’s deputy is also making patrols.

The community

Duriso realizes there is a segment of the population that prefers not to talk to police officers but he is ready to bridge the gap.

“We see something, we engage it, we approach it,” he said. “We need the citizens. That’s what I believe in. There’s no way around it. We have to coexist.”

He believes officers need to look at the situation of the person that doesn’t want to deal with cops. Maybe they had a bad experience, he said.

“Engage them. Have them sit down with us to bridge the gap and ask people to give us support and to prove ourselves,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want to go home to our families and the citizens want to go home to theirs. I have a saying: It’s always been for us to treat others like we want to be treated and like our family members would be treated.”

As chief of police, Duriso doesn’t have a lot of spare time. To relax, he goes to the gym, he said. He also enjoys bicycling and attending community events where he can interact with others.

Port Arthur Interim City Manager Harvey Robinson, who played a major part in hiring the new chief, appears pleased with Duriso’s performance so far.

“Let his work speak for itself,” Robinson said. “I have full confidence in him, which is obviously the case since I selected him.”