There’s a new face in charge of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol as Lt. Joe Schmidt takes over for Cmdr. Garrett TeSlaa. 

Schmidt is no stranger to Isla Vista. He lived in the area for five years, graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2001 and worked as a patrol supervisor in Isla Vista in 2016. Now, he’s back to continue working in the community. 

“It was my first home after graduating high school and leaving my parents’ house, and I just really fell in love with the community,” Schmidt said. 

The change comes after TeSlaa, who was in charge of the Foot Patrol for 2½ years, became commander of the Sheriff’s Office’s South County Operations Division. 

“​​I have big shoes to fill,” Schmidt said. “He was here for 2½ years, and he did a phenomenal job. He made a lot of effective changes.”

TeSlaa said that because of Schmidt’s history in Isla Vista, he is the right person to lead the Foot Patrol into the future. 

“Over the past few years, the Sheriff’s Office, along with our community and university partners, have made a lot of progress advancing public safety in Isla Vista,” TeSlaa said. “As a Gaucho, and a former Isla Vista resident with deep ties to the community, Lt. Schmidt is the perfect person to continue those efforts and lead the Isla Vista Foot Patrol towards a bright future.”

Schmidt said he specifically requested to be assigned to Isla Vista and was thrilled to get the chance to return to the community to which he’s connected. 

It would be fair to say that Schmidt has seen the good and bad of Isla Vista. He was a resident during the 2001 killings, when David Attias drove a vehicle into a crowd of people, killing four people and critically injuring a fifth person who died in October 2016. 

“It was a huge shock,” Schmidt said. “It was very sad. The whole community was hurting, myself included.” 

Schmidt said the community seemed to become more resilient following the mass murder.

In 2014, he found himself facing another tragedy when he was the lead investigator for the May 23 massacre that claimed the lives of six people and injured 14 others. 

Now a member of law enforcement, Schmidt said it was traumatic to see the community he cared about once again attacked. He made it his mission to get every answer he could for the families and try to prevent another tragedy from happening in the future. 

“I took it very seriously,” Schmidt said. “It was more than just a case that I was working. There was a lot of passion behind it, doing everything I could to get answers for people, and I think a lot of that comes from having been a resident here.”

Schmidt, now the person in charge of the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, said he sees many of the same issues that existed when he was a student, and he wants to address them. Specifically, he hopes to see a reduction in burglaries and property crime.

With residents concerned about the impact that housing projects will have on parking congestion, Schmidt said he wants to work with the California Highway Patrol to see whether there’s a collaborative approach for traffic enforcement. 

One of the busiest days for the Foot Patrol is Deltopia, the annual unsanctioned street party that happens the first weekend of UCSB’s spring quarter.

Schmidt has worked the event several times and said he learned a lot from how his predecessor handled the event through planning and community partnerships.

“I plan on using that same model that Cmdr. TeSlaa did for future planning, getting all stakeholders involved and getting it done early,” Schmidt said. “It’s a massive amount of planning, and at the end of the day — yes, it’s an unsanctioned event, and it’s a drain on resources — but at the end of the day, the goal for everybody, every stakeholder, is to keep people safe.”

Going forward, Schmidt said he wants to continue establishing trust and transparency in the community.

“I ​​want the community to know that I truly care and I’m very passionate about this community,” Schmidt said. “Everyone here is part of the community — us, the long-term residents, the students — we’re all part of the community, and it takes everybody to work together to have the most effective public safety.”