San Leandro anoints top cop
- August 7, 2009
San Leandro police Capt. Ian Willis, who has been serving as the city's interim police chief since the December 2008 retirement of Dale Attarian, was officially named police chief on Thursday. Willis is a 25-year department veteran.
If anyone else had been interested in that job, don't worry, because there always seem to be plenty of top-cop gigs available. The LAPD is looking for a new chief, and it looks like George Gascon, a Los Angeles and Mesa, Ariz. police veteran, won't be a candidate because he was sworn in as SFPD's new chief today.
Elsewhere in the Bay Area: Berkeley Police Chief Doug Hambleton announced in March that he is retiring. The Oakland Police Department is looking for a new chief. Interim chief Howard Jordan has made no secret of his interest. David Kozicki, one of three OPD deputy chiefs, was in the running to become chief at the UC Berkeley Police Department, but that job went to veteran campus cop Mitch Celaya.
Speaking of OPD and police chiefs, it's been clear for a long time that odds are good that one can become chief somewhere if you've been a cop in Oakland. Just ask Burnham Matthews, who has been chief in Alameda and East Palo Alto, Vallejo Police Chief Robert Nichelini, Pleasant Hill Police Chief Pete Dunbar, former OPD chief and current Vacaville Police Chief Richard Word, former Tracy Police Chief David Krauss, East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis and Davis' wife, Cal State East Bay Police Chief Janeith Glenn-Davis, among others. All are OPD veterans.