RICK SCOTT

Okay, Chief Scott, let’s talk about where you’re from. I’m from the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas. Originally, our family is from Corpus Christi. I have a couple of sisters. We grew up by the water, enjoyed the beach, spending summers out there. At an early age, my father, who was in the grocery industry, got a job in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and so he moved the family up north. But I always looked forward to going back and having summer vacations out there at our coast. I was probably not the best kid growing up, I was pretty good at pushing boundaries.

How so? I always enjoyed fun and adventure, sometimes not always following the rules. I had a great childhood. I was a kid of the ‘70s and ‘80s, so I grew up without a cell phone, without GPS. You would wake up in the morning, get on your bicycle, go all day long. Parents didn’t worry, and then somehow you made it home for dinner on time. It was all about getting together with friends, sometimes sneaking out after hours when we were supposed to be home in bed for a late-night ride with bicycles or motorcycles. I was fortunate to have horses growing up, so we would often go off on long horseback adventures and things like that. I also loved playing sports.

What did you play? Football, soccer, some baseball, but really, football was number one. I wanted to be a running back, and I thought that would be my position because I seemed to be pretty tough and pretty quick. For whatever reason, I liked the contact, enjoyed getting hit. But after a while, I found that I preferred hitting over being hit, so the coach moved me to defensive line. Now, granted, I’m only, at that time, about 150 pounds, 5’7” as a defensive lineman, but I made up for it with toughness—more toughness than brains, I guess—and ended up being All-District my senior year and Defensive Player of the Year for my school. I knew I didn’t have a college career based on my size, but I was able to make the most of my tenacity to have some success as a high school athlete.

So, what came after high school? I went to the University of Texas in Arlington, initially for a degree in microbiology, but about halfway through my college career, I learned that it was not going to be the path for me. I ended up graduating with a degree in sociology with a minor in biology. I knew that I wanted to be in some type of public service. I worked in a laboratory for part of my college career. That’s how I put myself through school. I just realized that spending a life looking through a microscope in an office by myself wasn’t for me. And so, I made a change to go into law enforcement. It’s a calling, it’s a job that finds you, it’s something you feel called to do. I knew at an early age I was different in that way. As a kid, I didn’t really understand why I felt compelled to take up for others, but I knew it was there. And most often, if I saw someone being bullied, whether they were a friend of mine or not, I would step in. Sometimes that ended up in a fight where I wasn’t always the winner. Later in life, I realized that it was just a desire for me to want to stand up and serve others, to protect others.

On one recent overcast morning, we met up with San Luis Obispo Police Chief RICK SCOTT in his office to get to know him a bit after nearly two years on the job as the city’s top cop. Here is some of what he had to say . . .

Why San Luis Obispo? It goes back to my road trip, twenty-five, thirty years ago now, back when I had just graduated from college. I decided to do a little exploring before I began my career. So, I packed up my truck with a plan to head either east or west. That was the extent of my plan. I chose west. I figured that six weeks was about enough time to get all the way around the western states then back home. I had a road atlas and headed toward California. I camped out in parks all along the way. I just remember that experience of being here. It was like nothing else I’d ever seen or have since seen—it was just beautiful. And the people here were genuine and nice. It was a more laid-back environment, compared to the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan area where I was from. It seemed to me like the perfect place to be. I recall distinctly thinking, if I could ever figure out how to make a living here and contribute in some way to this community, this is where I would want to be.