San Diego chief wants police to be ‘America’s Finest’

Making sure San Diego police live up to their designation as “America’s Finest,” the city’s 1.3 million residents feel safe in their communities and the number of officers increase are among Chief Shelley Zimmerman’s stated priorities.

Zimmerman, who early next month will reach her first anniversary as SDPD chief, said when the department reaches the high goals she has set, she will raise the bar even higher.

“We’re installing a culture of excellence, demanding it of ourselves and it is what the community deserves,” Zimmerman said when speaking to Conservative Order for Good Government members and guests in Rancho Bernardo on Tuesday.

Right after becoming chief on March 4, 2014, Zimmerman — a 32-year department veteran — said she began holding meetings for the department and city’s 123 communities, designed to send a clear message that officers will do all they can to build community trust in them and unlawful behavior among a few officers will end.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had a few who made the terrible decision to dishonor the badge and our noble profession,” Zimmerman said. “I will not tolerate it and we will not tolerate it as a collective organization. It takes years to build trust in the community and just a few minutes (to lose it).”

Zimmerman said she talks to her officers and staff in sports analogies, viewing herself as the head coach. Zimmerman said she told them, “If you intentionally fumble the ball or throw an interception, you’re out. If you didn’t mean to ... you can still play, but you’ll do a bunch of wind sprints (re-training).”

One way to rebuild trust is through body cameras, which record interaction between officers and civilians. The $4 million program — begun before last year’s incidents in Ferguson, Missouri, she noted — has resulted in 600 body cameras being issued to patrol officers thus far, with the rest on patrol receiving them by year’s end. They are not yet at Northeastern Division, which includes Rancho Bernardo, because they first went to the most diverse areas where there were the highest number of complaints of racial profiling by police.

She said San Diego is a national leader in the body camera movement and while the eighth largest city in the U.S., it has more officers wearing body cameras than those worn by officers in the seven largest cities combined.

“It is a win-win situation for officers and the public’s trust,” she said, adding after cameras were instituted officers reported a de-escalation in civilian aggressiveness. “(Civilians and officers) clean up their language and are not as aggressive,” she said. The department has also noticed fewer citizen complaints and complaints withdrawn once staff offers to show them a video of their encounter.

She said officers say there are “zero instances when they have wished they didn’t have (a camera) and numerous times they are so grateful (they) did.”

Zimmerman said those who have had contact with an officer are welcome to view their video. (They must first file a formal complaint.) She said she is adamant videos are not released to the media in order to not embarrass people, because she considers the videos evidence and releasing them could hamper the accused’s right to a fair trial. She said media are welcome to see videos when presented during a trial, just like they would learn about other evidence.

She has also brought back SDPD’s professional standards unit, a proactive group at internal affairs that looks for potential problems and ways to head them off. There is a written policy stating it is mandatory for officers to report any misconduct and a customer satisfaction survey has been instituted, where police encounters are randomly be selected for a follow-up with the civilians involved to learn their views of the encounter.

The department’s call center received 1.2 million calls last year and officers had hundreds of thousands of contacts with the public, with no one hearing about the vast majority because “we do our job very well,” she said. “Police should work like oxygen, it is all around you but you do not give it a second thought until it has gone missing.”

Survey feedback has been that officers are courteous, answer questions and are very professional, but response times are bad. “Generally, the results have been very good, just that we take a long time to get there,” she said.

Response times should improve with additional staff, something Zimmerman said is projected to improve due to a tentative five-year agreement designed to slow the flow of officers leaving for nearby agencies due to offers of higher take-home pay, sometimes up to $1,000 more per month.

The agreement was announced on Feb. 6. It includes a 6.6 percent pay raise for officers, an amount that would make SDPD comparable to San Diego Sheriff’s Department. The contract extension would cost around $92 million over the five years, with $62 million of that being new costs. Through various measures, including the city paying more toward health benefits, holiday pay, uniforms and equipment, officers’ take-home pay will increase.

She said last year the department hired 160 officers, but lost 162, mostly due to retirement or to another agency. Of the current force, 400 officers are eligible for retirement and more than half on patrol have been with the department for six or fewer years.

“When they graduate from the academy, they are not ready to be the next homicide detective,” she said. “There’s a real gap in the middle, so we’re holding on to the veterans for as long as we can so the others can gain experience.”

Zimmerman said it is essential residents in all 123 neighborhoods among the city’s 340 square miles feel safe, regardless of what crime statistics show.

“Crime statistics do not mean anything if you do not feel safe,” she said, later adding, “You should feel safe no matter who you are or where you live.”

Perception of safety is the first thing Zimmerman said she asked at town hall meetings and the two topics that stood out among all neighborhoods were traffic and the homeless.

“It is not against the law to be homeless ... a lot (of residents) forget that,” she said. However, the department is adding a second homeless outreach team and SDPD has won national awards for its efforts, she added.

Zimmerman said she prefers to prevent crime, which is why community involvement is essential. She encourages residents to join their neighborhood’s Nextdoor.com site and follow the department on social media.

“I fell in love with being a police officer because I get to make a positive difference in somebody’s life at their worst moment,” she said.

“I am extremely honored and proud to be your chief of police.”