San Diego PD’s Northeastern Division has a new captain

There is a new captain leading San Diego Police Department’s Northeastern Division.

The recently promoted Capt. Sandra Albrektsen became the Rancho Penasquitos-based division’s new leader a couple weeks ago. The division’s almost 100-square-mile coverage area includes Rancho Bernardo, Carmel Mountain Ranch and Sabre Springs. The station has 93 personnel, which includes two lieutenants, 11 sergeants, five detectives and 71 officers.

Albrektsen is replacing Capt. Dawn Summers, who is retiring.

“I want to work with the community and use community policing for problem solving,” the almost 30-year police veteran said, adding that crime reduction and improving quality of life issues as determined by the community are her primary focuses. The latter, based on calls, tend to be property crimes and traffic issues, such as unsafe driving in neighborhoods like chronic speeding, plus corridors to the freeway getting backed up.

Becoming a police officer has been the fulfillment of Albrektsen’s childhood dream.

“My mother would tell you that when I was 3, I said I wanted to be Pepper (role played by Angie Dickinson on the TV show “Police Woman”),” Albrektsen said. “I told my parents I wanted to be a police woman, which was not as normal a career choice as now. There were not too many in the early ‘70s, but I was always drawn to it, even at an early age.”

Her most recent assignment was in the child abuse/sex crimes unit, where as a lieutenant she was in charge of Internet crimes against children plus sex registrants. “It’s very hard, but very rewarding,” she said. “The detectives there are heroes.”

Other assignments have included patrol officer, detective, community relations officer, field training sergeant and field training administrator. She has often coached and trained officers and new police recruits, and was academic director of the San Diego Regional Academy at Miramar College.

“I’ve loved all my assignments, which have all taught me something about myself and the job,” she said. “I am always open to anything a new assignment can bring me.”

For more than 25 years Albrektsen has simultaneously been a college professor, teaching criminal justice and criminal law at Miramar College and University of Phoenix, and is a FEMA instructor at California State University Long Beach. She earned her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and master’s in public administration at San Diego State University, and is working on a doctorate in education at the University of San Diego.

“I’m a lifelong learner who believes in the education process … a lifelong process for personal growth,” she said.

Albrektsen said her family moved a lot when she was growing up since her father was in the Navy, but by her high school years they settled in San Diego. Her husband, Bill Albrektsen, is a sergeant in SDPD’s robbery unit and they have a 15-year-old son. Her hobbies include motorcycle riding and sports related activities.

“I’m very happy to be stationed here,” she said. “It is not a division I’ve worked at before and hope it is my permanent home. I look forward to meeting (residents) at community events coming up.”

During those encounters, Albrektsen said she hopes to hear about community challenges and explain the division’s challenges with staffing so the community and police can work together to solve problems in a positive manner. “My mission is to have safe neighborhoods,” she added.

While the recent home invasion robbery series involving three Northeastern neighborhoods has been closed, she said there is no way to know when the next crime series could occur. For that reason, she emphasized it is crucial for locals to be proactive by locking their doors, windows and gates.

“People need to be more diligent and we need to do a better job educating people,” she said. “These are great neighborhoods, so people become complacent.”