San Diego’s new Chief of Police, William Lansdowne, was officially introduced to the GLBT community last week at a meet and greet event at The Center that was organized by District Three Councilmember Toni Atkins. Lansdowne comes to San Diego by way of San Jose, where he has spent most of his career in law enforcement. He joined the San Jose Police Department in 1966. Aside from a four-year break from the department when he left to head up the City of Richmond Police Department in 1994, he has served the people of San Jose in a variety of capacities, most recently as the city’s chief of police. Close to 100 people turned out to hear the police chief speak.

“I heard a lot about him before he came to San Diego; we have a few friends on the council up in San Jose,” Atkins said, introducing Lansdowne last Thursday. “I can honestly say they were very sad to lose Chief Lansdowne from San Jose, but it could not be better for San Diego and I am very happy with the city managers’ decision [to hire] him for the job.”

Chief Lansdowne was sworn in as San Diego’s chief of police on Aug. 4, 2003 and took command of the department with 2,096 sworn officers, 766 civilian support personnel, and a budget of $272 million. He has already committed to keeping the GLBT Advisory Committee active, and Mark Dallezotte will remain the GLBT community’s liaison to the chief.

“In the gay, lesbian and transgender community it’s important for us to be even closer together,” Lansdowne said about keeping his doors open to the needs and concerns of the GLBT community. “The change in the economy that we are seeing now I think is putting an awful lot of stress on people, and that’s going to turn into people using drugs and alcohol, and that’s going to lead to some hate crimes that we are going to need to know about very quickly.”

He has also said that he is dedicated to improving the diversity training the police officers receive when they attend the academy — not only to improve their relations with the community, but also to bolster morale within the department.

“I can tell you for a fact that we have several officers in the San Diego Police Department that are having some difficulties or feeling some fears about coming out, but it would be such a wonderful thing if they would so that we could get beyond some of those things for the officers themselves,” Lansdowne said. “It would be in the recruiting area where you can help me very much, finding more gay, lesbian and transgender people to come to the San Diego Police Department so that we can begin to represent the entire community.”

Lansdowne also took the time to field questions from the audience regarding issues that are of importance to the GLBT community. Among the issues he discussed were his support for the needle exchange program and the city’s adoption of the Medical Marijuana Task Force’s guidelines early this year. The chief’s predecessor, David Bejarano opposed both of those programs.

“This is a very conservative area, the city of San Diego,” Lansdowne commented, “but that doesn’t take away my principles in what we need to do. My absolute responsibility is to serve the best interest of the entire community.”

On the subject of vice enforcement, which has long been a point of contention with the gay community due of tactics used to target and arrest men in areas where cruising occurs, he said, “The trouble with vice enforcement is sometimes they lose sight of what they are doing. They think it’s a cause and it’s not. “What vice does is they keep balance in the world. You won’t see vice in the gay community unless someone in the community has a real issue — not one that is make believe, not one that is based on a stereotype — based on a real crime problem in the city. I honestly don’t believe in your community that you will have any problems.”

Reaction from community members and leaders, including the transgender community, was very positive. Sharon May, a local activist and executive director of the Institute for Transgendered Education, spoke with Chief Lansdowne in the months before he was selected to be the new chief of police and says she is impressed with his track record.

“I called to see if they needed anyone to help with transgender issues,” May said. “He was ahead of the curve and said, ‘We’ve got someone on board for about a year,’ because they have had a couple of cops on the force who have come out as transgender.”

During their conversations he never let on that he was a candidate for the chief of police here in San Diego.

“I’d say he is way ahead of the curve,” May added. “I know a lot of people who are transgender in the San Jose area, and he has been on the forefront of really being active in giving rights and definitely trying to help the new cops that are coming out on the job. That was unusual and that was before legislation.”

Lansdowne has set open door office hours on Mondays, to give members of the community the opportunity to meet with him to talk about questions and concerns in regards to the police force. To schedule an appointment, contact the SDPD at (619) 531-2000.