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'See, believe, achieve'

New university police chief stresses community problem solving

As oxymorons go, "strive to relax" carries a certain humorous caution against our very human need to fret about personal achievement. But for new university police chief (and silver-medal Olympic athlete) Leslie Deniz, the aphorism summarizes the potentially frustrating state known to any talented athlete out for a spot of physical relaxation. It's difficult to relax when, for most of your life, you've schooled yourself to achieve.

"I like cycling," responded Deniz during a recent interview when asked where recreation fits in with her law enforcement career. "I work out, do things on a recreational basis. It took me quite a while to get adjusted to having fun while exercising. For a long time, I didn't want to do that -- I had to learn how. But I did."

Deniz employed that same flexibility during a 15-year rise from rank-and-file police officer to sergeant to lieutenant, when she learned the benefits of combining discipline and ambition with thinking outside the box. As a result, she's become a cop with an expertise in community problem solving, long-range planning, listening, and "effecting change" through team effort -- skills every university administrator needs to survive.

"A university setting has special requirements that a municipality doesn't have," Deniz pointed out. "There's more diversity, and it's densely populated. As I was preparing for this job, I came on campus and interviewed people and researched the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Here, reporting standards are different in terms of crime stats that need to be available. Within a community, sometimes you don't have people who will readily report to the police department. In the setting of a university, people are more apt to report. So that part of the process can be easier."

Deniz grew up in Gridley and earned a bachelor's degree in community service from CSU, Chico in 1989, and a master's degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix in 1995. Along the way, she trained at Butte College Police Academy, where she also currently teaches, and served on city police forces -- two years in Oroville and 13 in Yuba City. Her graduate degree equipped her for her ultimate role in Yuba City, supervising programs in field training, community-oriented policing and problem solving, and volunteers in policing.

"I truly believe in community-oriented policing and problem solving," Deniz said. "It really looks at long-term solutions. The program's SARA model [scanning, analyzing, responding, and assessing] is a great tool for different committees and issues on campus."

In 1995, Yuba City police department "made the transition" to community-oriented policing, said Deniz. Their first project using that methodology involved a low-income housing district on the city's southeast side, where residents felt unsafe. Through a combination of education, identifying problems, and meetings between residents, police, and the housing authority, the area slowly, but permanently, improved.

"Part of the philosophy is that community problem solving isn't something that's done by the police department alone," said Deniz. "A lot of it is committee work. Officers were reluctant to do it at first. Many of them believed they weren't trained for it, so we did a lot of educating in the department. We had to break down the barriers between the department and the neighborhood. Then I designed a survey to help identify the district's problems -- was it lighting, walking alone during the day or night, garbage, graffiti? We worked with the neighborhood's residents and the housing authority. Eventually, we shared a house there with other government entities, and this office evolved into a substation. Officers could drop in 24 hours a day, write up reports, check out the neighborhood. It took about five years, but, eventually, people felt they could take back their neighborhood, and they began policing themselves."

Many of those techniques are intrinsic to a university environment, and Deniz has been busy meeting campus stakeholders with whom she'll be working.

"One of the main things I'm doing right now is meeting with personnel within the police department, one on one," she said. "I think it's really important to get to know people, and to listen to their goals, aspirations, expectations. What are the things that work? What are the things that need to be enhanced?"

In terms of perennial and problematic campus issues such as alcohol consumption, Deniz believes that education and enforcement are key. "The statistics tell us that alcohol abuse is an issue with this age group," she said. "The more we can do to get people to recognize that their maturity does not come through the experience of drinking alcohol, the better. Networking is also important between the Chico Police Department and other public service entities. The potential of the situation demands law enforcement response, but the way to respond is to put your plans together prior to events."

For Deniz, the drive to improve and work hard to achieve goals is something that won't ever leave her. "See, believe, achieve," she likes to summarize from her Olympic coach. "If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right," she laughed. "That's what I grew up with, and I view it as part of my duty to improve my profession. Education must be on a continuum, not just law enforcement specifics, but formal education. The better prepared you are to look at different dynamics, the better you can make decisions to help lead a law enforcement organization. And what better way than to come back to my alma mater, to be able to effect change and plan for the future in an educational institution I really enjoyed when I came through?"

Taran March