ANAHEIM As Anaheim police Chief John Welter continues to deal with community unrest after two fatal officer-involved shootings, he is focused on maintaining peace and calm in a city best recognized for Disneyland and the Angels.

Welter said the department will maintain a heavy presence on the streets to guard against further violence and will have officers from other cities on standby in the event that more manpower is needed.

Aside from trying to prevent more violence from erupting in downtown, Welter is trying to find ways to reach out to the community and to improve police-community relations.

On Thursday, Welter explained how the shootings have affected the department and how he plans to restore trust.

Q. A lawsuit filed by Manuel Diaz’s family, who was shot and killed by police on Saturday, says that an officer shot Diaz in the back of his leg, making him fall, and then he or the other officer fired a second gunshot into the back of Diaz’s head. The attorney for the family said it was an execution. How do you respond to the accusations?

A. I think it’s very sad, and I think it’s irresponsible for anyone to be putting out information that is based on rumor. I can’t imagine how anyone would have known this information, and if they were witnesses, why aren’t they coming forward? I know that the District Attorney’s Office will complete a thorough investigation, which usually takes months to do. There will be forensics that will tell entry-exit positions, casings, location of subject and officer. I was a homicide investigator for years. I’ve investigated probably 200 to 300 murders in my career. I know how much goes into an investigation of this size, and nothing is left unturned. I feel for the people in that neighborhood and the reason I do is because they’re, I believe, being given rumors rather than facts, and they are being led to believe that the police would actually execute someone. If that’s the case and if the investigation reveals that’s the case, I’ll be the first to ask the district attorney to prosecute the officer.

Q. Anaheim, a city of more than 330,000 residents, is more than 50 percent Latino. Some protesters have accused the Anaheim Police Department of mistreating nonwhite residents. What would you say to those protesters?

A. We have a complaint process that is very open to the public. We take complaints anonymously. So, what do I tell the community when they think that we are harassing them because they are Latino? I wish that I could say it doesn’t happen, but I’m not naïve at the fact that cops are people, too. Have there been occasion when they’ve been discourteous? I’m sure there have been. In my opinion, is it rampant or common practice? Not only do I not think so, but it’s highly unlikely that it is because I’ve got a lot of Latino officers and a lot of people who live in Anaheim. Are people going to be rude at times? Sure. They are going to get fed up with someone yelling at them or doing whatever or maybe they are wrong – the officers – because every time they lose their cool and insult somebody or don’t act professional, we’ll hold them accountable. We discipline them. I’ve terminated probably 12 to 15 officers since I’ve been here. A lot of that is because of poor performance, inappropriate behavior, lack of trust with me and every one of them has been upheld through appeal.

Q. Do you know what the damage estimate associated with the violent protests is?

A. No, but look at how many windows were knocked down of buildings. It wasn’t just one window in one building. There were over 20 businesses or buildings that sustained considerable damage. Those windows aren’t cheap to replace, plus you’ve got police cars that were damaged. I have no idea, but we’ll figure that out later. That’s the least of our problems right now. We’ll assess all the damage later.

Q. What’s the estimated total cost of the department’s response to the incidents, including overtime? On Tuesday, there were over 300 officers from throughout the region in Anaheim. Will you be reimbursing the assisting agencies?

A. We have a financial manager who’s tracking all of that. When it’s all said and done, she will say here is what it cost us to do this. The cost is secondary. It’s not really important. We are going to call for the support we need, and I’m very thankful that there are a number of police agencies in Orange and L.A. County that came to assist us. We have systems in place to call for aid, and I think that’s what helped quiet (Tuesday) night and made it quiet last night as well, and we are hoping that it will remain quiet through the weekend.

Q. At Wednesday’s press conference, you said that much of the violence on Tuesday night was caused by “anarchist groups” and other people from outside Anaheim and estimated that two-thirds of the 1,000 or so protesters were not from Anaheim. How did you arrive to that conclusion?

A. We have a number of intelligence sources. We know about Anonymous or the Occupy or other anarchist groups. They have websites. They talk about what they are doing. They reveal their own numbers. We don’t know where they all came from, but we believe there’s no way to be accurate, but it’s an estimate. I think the vast majority (of people) were from outside, and I think they were here for one reason and one reason only and that is to create havoc, damage property, cause injuries and in effect just attack the democratic way. These people are smart, and they throw the bottles and the rocks from the middle of the crowd where they can’t be seen. They move to the back of the crowd so they can’t be touched. Who gets arrested? The people that get all caught up in this.

Q. What’s the morale at the Anaheim Police Department?

A. I think some are proud of the fact that they are able to maintain the peace and quell these riots and that they don’t get out of hand. They come together as a great team so to that extent the morale would be good in regards to we are going to do all we can and we are going to help each other. This is what they train for. But you know I also recognize the morale is not as high as it is for the public because they are human, too, and they feel as though there are a lot of people now in the public who don’t appreciate what they do.

Q. What do you do to move ahead?

A. We are going to look at all of this and look at what lessons have we learned when it’s over. How did we handle it? Did we show the proper amount of restraint? Did we move as quickly as we should have? You know we are already discussing whether or not we should have allowed that crowd to remain demonstrating in the street for two hours. We try to hope that they are going to demonstrate peacefully and then leave but it got way out of hand, so we’ll be evaluating that. We’ll be evaluating the entire process. I’ve had meetings with the mayor, the council, the city manager throughout this week. They are very concerned as well. They don’t want to see this city in turmoil. So, we’ll continue to reach out, but we are going to step up our efforts specifically in the area of police-community relations and trust.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3709 or desalazar@ocregister.com