Va. Beach begins search to replace retired police chief

VIRGINIA BEACH

After a decade at the helm, police Chief Jake Jacocks Jr. officially stepped down last week, ending his public service career and kicking off a nationwide search to find the next head of the region's largest police force.

His retirement means some uncertainty for a police department that's enjoyed 10 years of stable leadership and a city that's enjoyed steadily shrinking crime rates. Whoever gets the job will be hard-pressed to continue and improve upon those trends, especially when handed a smaller budget and fewer officers, said members of City Council and leaders of local police organizations.

Since 2007, the FBI has ranked Virginia Beach the safest city of its size. It also boasts the lowest crime rate in Hampton Roads, with 32.7 crimes and 2.1 violent crimes per 1,000 residents last year.

With 806 sworn officers, an $86.6 million budget, national accreditation and specialty resources such as two helicopters, the Beach police department is the largest, wealthiest and best-equipped in Hampton Roads.

But when it comes to funding and force size, Virginia Beach actually has less to work with than other cities of its size. Long Beach, Calif., Mesa, Ariz., Miami and Cleveland all have comparable populations, but larger budgets and more officers. They also have higher crime rates.

Only Mesa has a higher ratio of residents to officers: 574:1 compared with 541:1 in Virginia Beach. Long Beach, which ranks second on the FBI's "safest cities" list with a violent crime rate of 6.8, has 492 residents for every officer.

Even in Hampton Roads, Virginia Beach has fewer officers than other cities when compared with the population. For example, to match Norfolk's staffing level of 1 officer per every 300 people, the Beach would need a force of 1,454 officers. And that's before the city welcomes roughly 3 million tourists each year, said Officer Adam Bernstein, a police spokesman.

"We get criticized when people travel the Oceanfront and they see a large number of officers down there," he said. But "we're still fairly outnumbered."

And it's unlikely that the city will approve additional officers for the department any time soon. It lost 10 positions in the fiscal year that starts today because of city budget cuts.

"We're constantly being asked to perform more services with fewer people," said Officer Lucian Colley, president of the Virginia Beach Police Benevolent Association, a law enforcement union. "I think we've reached the stage where not only are our officers under-compensated, but we do suffer from a critical manpower shortage."

Despite fewer resources, Virginia Beach has been successful in achieving low crime rates because of proactive prevention efforts, said Councilman Jim Wood, a former police officer.

The department's Crime Prevention Unit employs eight officers with the sole mission of teaching people how to avoid victimization. And every month during a meeting to review crime statistics, Jacocks has held his leaders responsible for addressing emerging crime trends, Wood said.

"He's taken the department from being mostly reactive to being very proactive," he said. "As a result, you see that we've got a department that's got crime clearance rates that are double the national average and we've got crime that is down consistently every year."

The next police chief will need to follow suit to continue keeping crime rates low, Wood said. He or she will also have to address recruitment and retention issues and try to make pay and benefits more competitive, Colley said.

City Manager Jim Spore is responsible for filling Jacocks' vacancy. He hasn't announced how he'll go about doing that, but the city has begun soliciting bids from search firms interested in helping seek out a successor. Proposals were due Friday, city spokesman Marc Davis said.

Once the city selects a search firm, the police chief's job will be posted on the city's website, Davis said. Spore has not set a timetable for filling the position, he said.

When police Chief Charles Wall retired in 1999, it took about 7-1/2 months and cost $34,472 for the city to conduct a nationwide search. Officials sorted through 50 inquiries and interviewed six candidates before Spore picked Jacocks, the top internal candidate for the post.

Spore could've gone another route this time: skipping the search altogether and appointing interim police Chief Jim Cervera to do the job.

That's the route Wood said he and several other council members preferred.

"Personally, I don't think we ought to spend the money," he said. "I think we have somebody who is well qualified and who knows the city, knows the department, knows the people and has proven that he can do the job."

According to city policy, Spore is not required to open the job to external applicants.

Colley said he hasn't heard of other potential candidates, but would like to have a say in the decision, which will also involve input from members of the City Council and the community, Davis said.

Cervera has been a police officer for 34 years and became deputy chief over police operations in 2000. He'll lead the department until Spore names a new chief.

"It is certainly going to be a tough, tough thing for somebody to come in and take over and improve on it," Wood said.

Pilot researcher Maureen Watts and Pilot writers Patrick Wilson and Kristin Davis contributed to this report.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com