Dave Schwab | Uptown News

SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman holds forum for District Three residents

The force was with Hillcrest April 28, as San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman and her staff descended on the LGBT Center en masse for a town-hall style meeting. With upwards of two-dozen police officers on hand to listen and support their new police chief, Zimmerman addressed a full auditorium.

Self-professed workaholic Todd Gloria, City Council president and District Three’s representative, introduced San Diego’s new police chief — the 34th in the City’s history and its first woman — noting Zimmerman was even more dedicated than he, since she was spending her birthday holding the town hall.

Not a sports fan himself, Gloria said that Zimmerman, a Cleveland, Ohio native, is “the world’s biggest Ohio State fan,” her alma mater.
Zimmerman thanked the packed auditorium for the “fantastic turnout,” noting it “reaffirms how committed all of us are and shows all of us care as one community wanting to make things better.”

“We are going to embark on a journey together to make San Diego the safest large city in the nation,” Zimmerman said.

The new police chief said City law enforcement under her direction is committed to spending “every single second of every single day” honoring the words written on patrol cars which say, “America’s finest.”

“Those are not just words, they are our core values,” Zimmerman said, adding that one of her top priorities is to ensure people feel safe wherever they live in San Diego.
The police skipper also pledged openness and transparency and promised to listen as well.

“We want to hear the community’s concerns about our department either positive or negative,” she said. “We want to improve our relationship with all our communities.”
Zimmerman spent more than  half an hour fielding audience questions about a plethora of topics, everything from homelessness and racial and gender profiling to texting and distracted driving, bicycle safety and alleged sexual abuses committed recently by police officers.

“It’s all about reassuring our public that we are committed to transparency,” Zimmerman answered.
“Retention and recruitment of officers,” was Zimmerman’s answer when asked what the biggest challenge was confronting today’s San Diego’s police force, which she noted is going through a huge transition.

“Almost half of our officers will be eligible to retire in the next four years,” the police chief said. “Half of our working patrol officers also have six or fewer years on our department … in some commands it’s 70 percent.”

Though she said patrolling the city’s 350-square-mile jurisdiction with approximately 1.23 million people in 130-plus neighborhoods is a monumental task, Zimmerman promised it can be done if “we all work together as a team.”

One local resident queried Zimmerman as to why curfew sweeps were only being done in City Heights.

“That’s not true,” she replied. “We do sweeps in all communities.”

Zimmerman said curfew sweeps are done primarily to “protect children,” many of whom she said are victims of little or no parental supervision.

Someone else asked why more wasn’t being done citywide to combat homelessness and drug addiction, noting the two are “intertwined.”

“We work with a lot of different agencies to provide wrap-around services,” Zimmerman said. “It’s not a crime to be homeless.”

“Homelessness is more about being poor than being criminal,” Gloria added, noting a “housing-first approach” is being adopted now by the City toward its homeless population.

“You first have to get people stable, and they can’t get stable if they don’t have a place to live, so you have to get them housed,” he said.

Promoted following former police chief Bill Lansdowne’s resignation in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct within the department, Zimmerman, a 32-year police veteran, reiterated at the Hillcrest town hall her stance on the recent problems.

“Those very few who’ve discredited this badge — we’re not going to tolerate,” she said, adding that a police badge is not merely a piece of polished metal, but a “symbol of service” standing for “integrity, honesty and professionalism.”

San Diego’s 34th police chief said she was “all for” the use of cameras worn by officers to record police procedures in the interests of maintaining transparency. She also said such cameras not only hold police more accountable for their actions but the public as well.

“We’ve found the demeanor of people toward officers is greatly improved when they know the cameras are on them,” she said. “We welcome those cameras.”
Zimmerman then asked the citizens in attendance to “dream big.”

“Imagine the possibility of all of us, the mayor, the City Council, the city attorney, the police department and our wonderful communities working together 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.

Following the police chief’s Q&A session, the auditorium crowd stood in unison and sang happy birthday to her.

Afterwards, Gloria presented the new police chief with cupcakes from Babycakes to celebrate the occasion.