The Police Chaplain Unit of the Shafter Police Department was started in September of 1990. Pastor Dean Long organized, leads, and still participates today after 18 years in the program.

The Chaplains purpose is to minister to all that desire their help. They deliver death notices, counsel those in need and are available to the officers of the Police Department. They are often times called out by the police department anytime, day or night, to assist in particularly difficult incidents. They are responsible for a duty week beginning on Monday and ending on Sunday in which they are asked to ride in a squad car at least 10 hours per month.

Over the years we have had up to seven Chaplains. Currently we have five Chaplains serving. This is a volunteer group serving the Police Department. Each Chaplain desires to serve the community in any way possible and lend themselves available at all times.

- Dean Long, Pastor
Shafter Free Will Baptist Church

Police Chaplains, like all volunteers working on behalf of the police department must go through a background investigation and obtain the required clearances. If you are interested in more information about this program, please contact Pastor Long at:  or Captain Jeff Bell at: .

We'll be posting more information and photos here to show you what's going on. In their last quarter of 2007 (Oct-Dec), the Chaplains logged in a little over 148 hours!!!

Please let them know how much you appreciate their service to us!

Pastor Dean Long and son Gary Long receiving appreciation plaques at the volunteer dinner held at Brookside Deli in 2006. Kind of a cool deal to see the family tradition and level of community involvement passed down.