For Kings County Sheriff's Cmdr. Jack Amoroso, the greatest years of his life were the two he spent in Avenal.

"It's a great city with great folks," he said. "We did great things out there. The city manager out there, Melissa Whitten, is very passionate and supported us 100 percent.

"We were able to get the gang situation under control with some really aggressive, proactive law enforcement, the way I think it should be done."

With his last day in the office scheduled for Friday, Amoroso spent some time reflecting on his 31 years in law enforcement.

As he tells it, the cornerstone of his entire career came in 2004, when he was appointed as the commander in charge of the Avenal Substation. It was the place where he did his best work, he said.

"It's a very dangerous game we are playing with these people and we have to win," Amoroso said. "You can't come in second place here."

To hammer his stance home, one of Amoroso's first orders of business was to sit down with the leaders of each gang in Avenal. He met with them privately, one on one, so they could speak freely.

"I told them that if you choose to commit gang violence in this community, you will go to prison. We will pursue you at every opportunity and we will put you in prison."

It was a prophecy that came true. Every gang leader he met with would later end up in prison on gang charges.

"I wanted them to understand that if they didn't commit gang violence in the community, then they had nothing to fear from us," he said. "But I made it very clear that if they did, we would pursue them and we would put them in prison.

"And they all went."

Despite the confrontation, there are no hard feelings between Amoroso and the people he put in jail. Some have since been released from prison and even approached him at the Sheriff's Office to shake his hand.

As Amoroso put it, it's "strictly business."

"It's an incredible feeling and responsibility," he said. "The city is entrusting you with their safety. Luckily, I had incredible talent out there. I set the standard, but the deputies bought off on it completely. Together, we decimated gang activity in that area."

But when Amoroso first came to Kings County, it was not with a badge and a gun, but a ball and a mitt.

He moved to the area from San Francisco to play baseball with College of the Sequoias. It was here that he met his wife and started working at his father-in-law's dairy.

It wasn't long until the law enforcement in his blood got the better of him. His father was a retired deputy chief of police from San Francisco. He credits him with inspiring his desire to join the force.

"It was just something I wanted to do," he said. "I was fascinated by the military, by the discipline of it. It was a chance to deal with like-minded people who understood what needs to be done to protect the community.

"Also, I don't know what else I would have done. My family needed to eat."

He joined the Hanford Police Department in January 1979 and transferred to the Sheriff's Office in May 1988.

He attributes much of his success to two former sheriffs, Tom Clark and Ken Marvin.

"Tom Clark, before he became sheriff, took me under his wing and really looked out for me," Amoroso said. "He gave me a lot of insight into how to be successful and how to do the job properly.

"Ken Marvin gave me some incredible opportunities. He was the one who promoted me to commander in 2002 and he put me to work out in Avenal soon after that."

In the future, he plans to keep teaching the "extended" police academy at College of the Sequoias. Part of the Tulare-Kings BASIC Police Academy, this course allows students with full-time jobs to train for the police force on the weekends.

"They give up their free time on the weekends to come in and train, so they are basically doing the same thing I'm doing," Amoroso said. "It also means for the past two years, I haven't had a day off."

Amoroso has been with COS as an administrator and a coordinator since 1984.

"It's a lot like being a watch commander," he explained. "When you work on patrol, you are responsible for the deputies, you have to guide their training and you have to provide supervision in the field.

"What I do at COS isn't much different."

He also plans to spend more time with his grandkids.

If there were one drawback to the level of dedication in his work, it would be the time spent away from his family, Amoroso said.

With so many weekends at work and teaching at COS, he's still trying to find time to attend his grandchildren's ball games.

"When Marvin retired, I told him that I wasn't sure where I would be today if I didn't do things this way," he said. "But, I'm not sure I did it right, because of what I missed out on. I've been gone from my family so much."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2425.

(Oct. 27, 2009)