Morgan Hill Police Capt. Joe Sampson, 50, is leaving MHPD to
become the captain of investigations for the Oceanside Police
Department in Southern California, a lateral move in terms of the
title, but a giant leap in the size of the department and scope of
work. MHPD has a full-time staff of 60 people, whereas Oceanside
Police Department has 320 full-time employees.
In a break during his last day at the Morgan Hill Police Department, Capt. Joe Sampson said his emotions were mixed about leaving the place he’s called home for eight years.
“I’m happy to be starting a new chapter in my career and at the same time I have a lot of strong ties to this town that I’ll miss,” Sampson said.
Sampson, 50, is leaving MHPD to become the captain of investigations for the Oceanside Police Department in Southern California, a lateral move in terms of the title, but a giant leap in the size of the department and scope of work. MHPD has a full-time staff of 60 people, whereas Oceanside Police Department has 320 full-time employees.
Sampson said he’s comfortable with the size since that’s how he’s spent much of his 21-year career. In 1990 he began as an officer for the La Palma Police Department in the Los Angeles area where he grew up; moved on to the cities of Orange, Santa Ana and Santa Maria before settling in Morgan Hill in 2003.
He was promoted in 2006 to commander of field operations overseeing patrol officers. In 2010, the department switched the title to captain and Sampson oversaw special operations, the schools, community events and media inquiries. He’s been in front of TV news cameras a few times throughout his career in Morgan Hill, most recently during a kidnapping of a Morgan Hill infant that set-off a statewide Amber Alert. The infant was found safe and returned to her parents four hours after she was reported missing.
Sampson said the communities of Morgan Hill and Oceanside are similar because there is a similar economic division in both towns, but with the beach and harbor in Oceanside, “it opens up dealing with a whole other area. It will by my first beach city.”
Oceanside has a population of slightly more than 167,000 and is located about 35 miles north of San Diego in San Diego County.
The opportunity for Sampson and his wife to move closer to his family in the Los Angeles area and their only daughter, who will be a freshman at Concordia University in Irvine, was ideal. “It’s appealing as a family man; the opportunity to go back essentially where I came from,” Sampson said.
His wife Cheryl, who is leaving her job as a third-grade teacher at San Martin/Gwinn Elementary, will also find opportunity as a new assistant principal in the San Juan Capistrano Unified School District.
“That’s an important factor. And certainly at the professional level it comes a time in your career to spread your wings a little bit,” Sampson said.
“I’ve had a successful run in this community and police department and now it’s time to move forward to a little larger organization.”
Sampson’s last day in Morgan Hill was Wednesday. He starts in Oceanside mid-August.
