In the early 1980s, a motivated Escondido native joined the San Diego Police Department as a uniformed patrol officer. After 23 years of hard work and cooperation, that officer continues to have an impact on crime in Mission Beach and Pacific Beach as well as the surrounding communities protected San Diego Police Department’s Northern Division.
Appointed to assistant chief on Jan. 14, former Northern Division Capt. Boyd Long, 45, credits his department’s officers with the success of policing during his time as captain.
“I got to give credit where credit is due” he said, “to those officers who go out every day, day in and day out, with one thing in mind, and that is to make this a safe community and a safe city.”
Long replaces former Assistant Chief David Ramirez, who was promoted to executive assistant chief after former Executive Assistant Chief Bill Maheu left the department for a position at Qualcomm.
Long now supervises the patrol operations of all nine police department divisions in the city.
And though he gives the credit to officers he’s worked with, Long helped usher in several programs in the community during his time as captain of Northern Division.
Under Long, there were security cameras installed in Mission Beach following a home invasion and sexual assault on San Fernando Place in October 2006. The three suspects accused of the horrific attack are currently on trial.
Northern Division also saw the capture and sentencing of the PB Peeper while Long was captain. Eduardo Castillo Herrarte, 33, was sentenced to five years and four months in January for peeping through windows and attempting to assault a woman in Pacific Beach, according to reports.
Long said diligent police work and lots of community involvement led to the capture of the suspects involved in sexual assault incidents in Clairemont and in Mission and Pacific beaches.
Long also helped bring about the Administrative Fines program. The program allows the department to issue $1,000 tickets to noisy neighbors in the beach areas and other San Diego communities.
But Long’s career and scope of influence go back to before his rise to captain.
From 1987 to 1990, Long worked on a gang and drug unit during a time when cocaine, heroin and crack were reaching epidemic proportions in the city, he said.
As part of the Walking Enforcement Campaign Against Narcotics, or WE CAN, Long and other officers in the unit went on foot patrol in communities that had a lot of drugs and gang activity. He said cooperation between the police and the community also helped with the enforcement of that program.
“It was us combined with the community,” he said. “The community saw the same officers, the same faces walking in their neighborhoods, and they couldn’t help but create a relationship with us.”
Long said crime remains relatively low in the city today because of the culture of cooperation between the community and the police department developed through those earlier programs.
After spending a couple years as a traffic motorcycle officer in La Jolla, Long began his ascent through the ranks to become sergeant at Central Division, where he patrolled downtown and Logan Heights.
After leaving Central Division, Long began taking on more administrative positions within the department. As a mobile field force coordinator, he helped organize and train officers in riot response and emergency response plans.
Long also held a position as a field lieutenant at the watch commander’s office, where he managed response to incidents occurring throughout the city.
In June 2006, Long became captain of Northern Division, where he said working closely with neighborhood watch groups and local government played a big part in the success of the division.
“Those are all complex issues that made my time at Northern Division a lot of fun for me too. It was a challenging experience,” he said.
In his new position as assistant chief, Long said the division’s captains would report to him, and he, in turn, reports to Chief William Landsdowne.
Now that he’s settling into his new position, Long said he has one objective for his new role.
“My primary goal is to reduce violence. I want to see a reduction in violence,” Long said.
Born and raised in the San Diego area, Long attended Palomar College and received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a master’s degree in public administration from National University. Long also completed the FBI National Academy, a law enforcement management-level course for law enforcement administrators and leaders, he said.
Current Northern Division Capt. Shelly Zimmerman replaces Long as head of the division responsible for communities including La Jolla, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and Clairemont.