Local with Lisa: New Piedmont Police Chief

Piedmont has a new police chief, Frederick Shavies.

Chief Shavies comes to us from the Oakland Police Department, where he served as Deputy Chief. He brings with him over 20 years of law enforcement experience. Let's meet him. 

Hi, Chief. Welcome to Piedmont.

Chief Shavies: Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

So, what drew you to Piedmont? And what about this job particularly excites you?

Chief Shavies: So, I am local. I grew up in Oakland. I grew up as a police officer in Oakland. I spent nearly 20 years at the Oakland Police Department.

When I met Chief Bowers and Captain Monahan, I spent some time here visiting the Piedmont Police Department. I fell in love with the agency, with the community.

We were able to get our children into the school district a few years ago. And it's just been an absolutely welcoming community.

With your background in Oakland, what strengths and perspectives do you think you can bring to Piedmont?

Chief Shavies: So I have a number of experiences that I've had in Oakland, for better or for worse. I've had some very interesting assignments. I was the homicide section commander, and I have been a training section commander.

Just prior to me leaving, I was the deputy chief of our Bureau of Investigations. So it gave me an opportunity to meet and work with a number of law enforcement agencies around the area.

So is there anything that you did in Oakland that you want to implement here? 

Chief Shavies: The things that I felt that we did extremely well was working hand in hand with community based organizations, non-governmental organizations, in order to provide public safety. And that's one of the things that I want to do.

Previously in Oakland, I was the Jewish community liaison. So, I'll be giving a talk with another Chief from Oakland this weekend around safety, around the high Holidays.

So what would you say are your top priorities for the department for your first year?

Chief Shavies: My top priority is staffing. We are short dispatchers as well as police officers. So if anyone out there is looking for a job in public safety, we are hiring. I know that Chief Bowers has done an absolutely incredible job of deploying technology throughout the community to keep us safe. I want to build upon that. 

All right, Chief, thanks for talking to me. 

Chief Shavies: Thank you.

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