Shelley Zimmerman, San Diego\u2019s 34th police chief and the first woman ever to helm the department, said she never considered she\u2019d one day command it.
\n“When I graduated from the police academy in 1982, my goal wasn\u2019t to be chief of police,” she said. “My goal was to do the very best job at whatever assignment I had.”
\nAn Ohio native from Cleveland and an Ohio State University alum whose father was a World War II combat veteran and a trial attorney, Zimmerman first came to California to the Rose Bowl to see her beloved Buckeyes play. Afterward, she visited San Diego, which proved to be life changing.
\n“I came down to the zoo and immediately fell in love with the beauty of the city,” Zimmerman said. “I\u2019d shoveled my last driveway.”
\nAfter breaking her parents\u2019 hearts with the news, Zimmerman said she moved to San Diego “not knowing anyone. Didn\u2019t have a job. Didn\u2019t even have a place to stay.”
\n“And here I am 32 years later as the chief of police,” Zimmerman said adding “it\u2019s a privilege to wear this uniform and badge.”
\nOnce in San Diego, Zimmerman still thought she\u2019d follow in her father\u2019s footsteps and enroll in law school. But she ended up choosing a different path.
\n“I\u2019d helped put myself through Ohio State and I thought I\u2019d have to do the same with law school and I heard the Police Department was hiring,” she said noting of the force, “I loved it from day one.”
\nFrom the start, Zimmerman was impressed by the variety \u2014 and impact \u2014 of police work.
\n“You have an opportunity to make a positive difference in somebody\u2019s life every single day,” she said. “You use every bit of knowledge you\u2019ve ever learned, no matter how important or seemingly meaningless, because you come across such a variety of situations.”
\n“We don\u2019t get the calls that say, \u2018Come out and celebrate with us, our child made honor roll,\u2019 ” Zimmerman said. “We get the calls that say, \u2018Come out, please hurry, because someone just assaulted us, or just assaulted our child.\u2019 When we get there, we have the opportunity to do what we can to make a positive difference \u2014 to make a terrible situation better.”
\nHired in the wake of 10-year veteran police chief Bill Landsdowne\u2019s resignation in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct within the department, Zimmerman said, “Those very few who\u2019ve made the terrible decision to discredit this badge we\u2019re not going to tolerate.”
\nZimmerman said a police badge is not merely a piece of polished metal but a “symbol of service” standing for “integrity, honesty and professionalism.”
\n“We are going to instill a culture of excellence in our police department,” Zimmerman said. “We are going to demand it of ourselves, because our communities deserve it. We are recommitting every single second of every single day to the words that are written on the doors of our police cars, not just San Diego\u2019s finest but America\u2019s finest.\u2019 ”
\nZimmerman favors an independent audit to “see how we can do it (policing) better.”
\nSan Diego\u2019s new police chief also supports a proposal to outfit every patrol officer with a camera monitoring their activities
\n“We\u2019re in the testing phased right now and it\u2019s going well,” Zimmerman said pointing out she\u2019s “completely in favor” of using any technology that can “make us more effective, provide the best service possible to our public.”
\nOnce captain of SDPD\u2019s Northern Division covering the coastline, Zimmerman credits the beach alcohol ban for being a “game changer” making beaches a more suitable environment for everyone, especially families.
\n“It smells like a beach now, you\u2019re not dodging bottles and cans” said Zimmerman, a beach jogger. “Families have returned, People are enjoying themselves in an environment of safety and fun.”
\nZimmerman pointed out policing the beachfront is of paramount concern “not only for the 1.3 million people who live here but for the many millions of visitors we have.”
\nBecoming San Diego police chief during a time of great transition, Zimmerman said the department is much different today than it will be when she leaves.
\n“Half of our department is eligible to retire within the next four years,” she pointed out. “And half of our working patrol officers have six or fewer years on our department. On some commands, 70 percent of offices have six or fewer years. That\u2019s a lot of young officers. Not by age but by experience.”
\nThe task of transforming a 21st century police force for the nation\u2019s eighth largest city falls to Zimmerman.
\nNoting the role is ever-expanding, Zimmerman said law enforcement is no longer about just being a good police officer.
\n“We\u2019re social workers,” she said. “We\u2019re parents, mentors \u2014 anything you can think of.”
\nNoting San Diego has “one of the lowest staffed police departments of any major city,” Zimmerman\u2019s convinced she and her colleagues are up to the task of creating the finest police force for “America\u2019s finest city.”
\n“Imagine the possibility of all of us, the mayor, the City Council, the city attorney, the police department and our wonderful communities working together in a collaborative, cooperative relationship with one goal: To make San Diego the most beautiful city in the world and a place where people can raise their families and play in harmony and safety,” Zimmerman said.
\n“We can do this if we work together,” Zimmerman pledged. “And we need to because of our limited resources. We need to have all of these entitites working together as one. As the mayor said, \u2018We are one San Diego.\u2019 We are.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Shelley Zimmerman, San Diego\u2019s 34th police chief and the first woman ever to helm the department, said she never considered she\u2019d one day command it. “When I graduated from the police academy in 1982, my goal wasn\u2019t to be chief of police,” she said. “My goal was to do the very best job at whatever […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":276193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Zimmerman snapshot: San Diego\u2019s first woman police chief takes helm","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}