SDPD

Chief Williams Lansdowne retires, Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman promoted
Just one day after Chief William Lansdowne announced he was stepping down from his role at the San Diego Police Department,  mayor-elect Kevin Faulconer named his replacement.

Assistant Chief Shelley Zimmerman will step into the role effective Monday.

Zimmerman is not only a 31-year veteran of the force, she's the city's first-ever female police chief.

Faulconer said he's confident in the appointment, noting her years of experience and familiarity with the needs of the department.  Not only can she make sure the best and brightest are recruited into the ranks, she understands the needs …

Minority populations not well represented within the department
Attrition in the San Diego Police Department is dwindling it's diversity.

Current racial break downs show the SDPD has 9 percent fewer Hispanic and 8 percent fewer Asian officers than it did just for years ago.

Recruiting efforts are still going strong, according to department sources, and the department wants to create an ethnically diverse workplace.  For now, however, those efforts are falling short.

If you look at the citywide demographics, less than 50 percent of San Diego residents are Caucasian- but Caucasian officers make up nearly 60 percent of the police force.

Studies have shown …

SDPD Offers Residents Virtual Ride Along
It's known as a "ride-along" -- when ordinary citizens spend a few hours with a police officer in the patrol car simply observing what happens.

If you talk to someone who's been on a ride-along, most will tell you it's fairly interesting, from the gadgets inside of the car to the calls the officer goes on.

Well, the San Diego Police Department is innovating the ride-along.

The San Diego Police Department last week hosted it's first virtual ride-along giving the world a birds-eye view into the day of an officer via Twitter.

The Tweet-Along, as they called it, …

The former SDPD headquarters had been shuttered for nearly 17 years.  Now, through the creative visions of developers, the facility has been reopened and re-purposed into a retail wonderland.

Today, the emporium features San Diego-local storefronts, open spaces and a variety of top-notch restaurants.

Some tenants felt the opportunity to rent space in the historic building was too good an opportunity to pass up.  They saw the still-wavering economy as a solid bargaining chip when it came to negotiating the terms of their lease.

On the flip side of that coin, the competition pool was strong enough that it allowed landlords to …