Former LAPD Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz was named the Chief of Police of Riverside PD on Thursday. According to the Press Enterprise, Diaz beat out 60 other candidates. He will be introduced to the Riverside City Council next Tuesday and then officially start leading the department on July 1.
(When Diaz was first elevated to the position of Deputy Chief of Central Bureau after the so-called May Day melee, I wrote about him here and here.)
After unexpectedly throwing his hat into the ring as a candidate for LAPD’s Chief last fall, when Charlie Beck was selected Sergio went ahead with a planned retirement in April. Yet, he wanted a new challenge, he said when we spoke on Thursday night. Riverside, which has an economically diverse population of around 300,000, has its own share of problems, and its own set of challenges.
The Riverside PD is a good-sized department, with 400 sworn officers, a SWAT team, air support and a well developed community policing plan.
Yet, Riverside also has a past as a troubled agency. The RPD operated for five years under a federal consent decree brought on by charges of systemic racism and and overuse of force. Things came to a head with the shooting death of 19-year-old Tyisha Miller, an unarmed African American woman who was shot 12 times by police as she sat in her car at a Riverside gas station.
In addition, a drinking/driving/car-crashing scandal involving the RPD chief, Russ Leach, resulted in Leach’s resignation, the cover-up for which ended up taking down some of the department’s command staff as well. Now there is a vacuum of leadership, says Diaz.
Diaz is the second high profile LAPD command staff member who has recently taken a job heading another Southern California law enforcement agency.
Earlier this year, former LAPD Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell was named Chief of Police of Long Beach.
Diaz said that while he has enjoyed the period of down time, which allowed him to engage in such prosaic activities as working out more and filling in as the family dog-walker, he is now ready to hit the ground running.
CONGRATULATIONS, CHIEF SERGIO!
Photo by Ed Fuentes/Special to The Press-Enterprise
NOTE: Light blogging this morning. More later today about the CITY ATTORNEY & THE GRAND JURY.
IN THE MEANTIME….
A police pursuit ends up in a tragedy.
And thankfully 16-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland has been spotted alive and well.
Good luck to him!
Raphael Sonnenshein, who served as Exec. Dir. of the LA Charter Reform Commission, has a solid editorial on why Trutanich’s power grab is a really bad idea – including that it’s precisely the kind of person who would engineer an end- run like this around the city charter, who isn’t fit to be entrusted with the added powers it entails. “Who would be watching the watcher?” Sonnenshein asks. No one. (Wonder how long before the “official” op-ed countering this appears and/or, stories to bolster his demands. Like, some patient who got dumped and didn’t get “justice” because the CA didn’t have grand jury power so couldn’t find enough “proof” of ill intent. Of course, sidestepping the substantive issues Sonnenshein raises.)
Who lets a 16 year-old go sailing around the world by herself!
Joe, yeah, I know. I wouldn’t. Still, she seems like a great kid and I’m just glad she’s okay.
Part of the problem for me is that I’m in kind of a glass house on such matters, since I have a 24-year old who rock, mountain and ice climbs and I—his extremely nervous mom—have search-and-rescue in 5 counties on speed dial.
Obviously, he’s older, experienced, never does it alone and is empowered, legally, to make his own choices, but…. the worry is still the worry.
Thanks, sbl, I’ll look at the Sonnenshein piece.
My cop 24 year old son is the same way Celeste, it isn’t easy being a parent to a kid who constantly goes to the edge is it? He’s a physical beast and smart as they come but at times I wish he’d just take a break from some of his more “out there” activities.
Riverside and San Bernardino counties are the wild west compared to L.A. and Orange and police work is handled, at times, a bit differently. When cops go to far they have to answer up for it, but those counties are beserk way more than you read about.
When was the last time someone fired a missle of sorts at a local pd in these parts?
A missile? Really? Okay, that’s definitely weird.
I haven’t read the articles, but the web’s buzzing with people questioning the wisdom of her having been allowed to do this, with her lack of experience – a stunt to copy her brother? to get in the record books? To lobby this into a lucrative movie deal? And what about the cost of all the search & rescue, for something she chose to do, possibly for personal gain, when as a society we’re concerned about limiting even essential healthcare costs, ration it now by income/ ability to afford insurance, or must have virtually no savings/income to get MediCal…Not my idea of responsible parenting. There’s a big difference between over 21 and 16!
Celeste, on the editorial, check the reader comments, too – I just looked and there are only 5 so far, maybe because they have to register, unlike with the blogs. One with a tip to investigate something re: the CA himself, another by someone who frames his argument, “After 20 years, the city finally has a practicing lawyer…” one of his regulars, probably. Anyway, I think Sonnenshein’s credentials on the subject of the city charter are about as solid as they come. Curiously, even his usual fan Rick Orlov at the Daily News framed the issue last week as a grudge match between Trutanich and Gil Cedillo and “certain city officials,” which are widely known.
P.S. I shouldn’t characterize Orlov as “his usual fan,” to be more specific – he started out as one but his paper including the editorial section have been very critical of Trutanich in a number of areas. If you want to get a balanced view of him these days you’ll be more likely to find it in the conservative, suburban valley Daily News than in the Times.
And yes, as you noted in below thread, it’s the Daily News but not LAT which endorsed Gloria Romero, the “liberal Democrat” and is sounding a lot more bipartisan these days. They also endorsed for Assembly, Krekorian’s old seat, Gatto not the Republican Sunder Ramani. (Not that I know enough about either of them.)
Actually, the DL was particularly great with education reporting when Naush Boghossian was still there and, as you suggest, if anything skewed in a liberal direction—-or at least progressive.
BTW, sbl, I just read the Sonenshein op ed. It’s excellent. Dead on. (And yes, I think that first comment is by a ringer.)