Dave Snowden

Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley was honored with the Dave Snowden award at the Law and Order Awards banquet hosted by the Newport Harbor American Legion on Friday. The Newport Harbor legion post has hosted the banquet to honor local public safety agencies for 41 years. "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here ? they're our protectors," said legion member and event co-chairman Earl Fusselman. The Dave Snowden award, created after former Chief Snowden left the Costa Mesa Police Department in 2003, is given to an official who demonstrates a long-standing commitment to the community, Fusselman said.

Dave Snowden started his police career as a patrol officer in Montebello in 1966. He didn't step into his current role, replacing Roger Neth as Costa Mesa's Chief of Police, for 20 years. Snowden has an enthusiasm for Western movies: He has often served on the committee for the Golden Boot Awards for Western movie actors. Though he doesn't wear a Stetson around town or ride a horse to work, he does cultivate a sort of Western informality and the old-time sheriff's enthusiasm for fighting crime.

Marisa O'Neil The American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 named Costa Mesa fire Battalion Chief Keith Fujimoto the recipient of the Dave Snowden Award at its Law and Order Awards banquet this week. This is the 40th year for the awards ceremony recognizing public safety officials in Newport-Mesa and the second year for the Dave Snowden Award. Legion members select the recipient of that award, named for a former Costa Mesa police chief, given to recognize longevity and service to the community.

Deepa Bharath His office had neither furniture nor carpet Monday morning, but Costa Mesa's new Police Chief John Hensley was definitely on board. On his first day as the city's chief, Hensley arrived bright and early and spent his first hours on the job walking around the building meeting his staff. "They're not going to come to my office," he said with a smile. "So I thought I should walk into their offices and meet with them." Over the next few weeks, Hensley said, he will meet with each police division and get to know the officers.

Deirdre Newman Setting goals has paid off for the Police Department. Out of eight Orange County cities with populations of 100,000 or more, Costa Mesa showed the largest drop in crime in 2002 with a 15.4% decrease, according to the state attorney general's report released Sunday. The plunge occurred because of concrete actions the department took after being pummeled with a 16% increase in crime in 2001, Chief Dave Snowden said. "What we decided to do was put our heads together and tell our area commanders specific goals to achieve to reduce crime," Snowden said Monday.

It is Father's Day at 11:15 a.m., and I am sitting in the middle of the newsroom with two fathers waiting patiently for me to finish this column. Tony Dodero, my boss, has a Father's Day brunch to attend, and he is anxiously awaiting my column about Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden's retirement shindig. On his way down the Orange Freeway right now is my son's father, Rodney, who also has a brunch to attend. I am stuck at this computer with a deadline looming and I am stuck.

Little Dave Snowden loved and idolized on-screen cowboys. As it turned out, he became one in real life. The Costa Mesa Police Chief received the 2002 Spurgeon Award on Wednesday for taking a leadership role in the explorer program founded in Orange County by Bill Spurgeon. The program helps teenagers between ages 14 and 20 to explore their interests in various fields of work, including law enforcement. Snowden received the award at a special luncheon that the Learning for Life of Orange County organized.

Costa Mesa has big boots to fill in bringing a new sheriff to town. Whether hired from within or outside the department, the city will miss Dave Snowden. For 16 years, the cowboy at heart has been the Police Department's face, a face that will quickly be missed when it's last seen this summer. Not only have officers of every rank in the building been huge fans of him, but -- just as importantly -- so has the community. The heart and soul of the department has shed tears alongside community members during such horrible tragedies as the Denise Huber murder and the preschool crash that killed two toddlers.

Deepa Bharath Dave Snowden is not done being chief yet. On Jan. 5, the man who retired after leading Costa Mesa's police department for 16 years, will take over as the interim police chief for the city of Beverly Hills. It's going to be quite a commute from Newport Beach. But Snowden said he is up to the drive and the challenge the job itself presents. "Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa have a lot in common," he said. "They both have some high-end shopping.

Deepa Bharath The contest for one of the most important jobs in the city is just beginning to get interesting. Friday was the deadline for those vying to be Costa Mesa's Chief of Police. As of 3:30 p.m., with about an hour and a half to go, the city had received 32 applications. Dave Snowden, who has led the department for 16 years, will retire June 13. The new chief will likely be on board at least two weeks before that date to ensure a smooth transition, City Manager Allan Roeder said.

One day after I declared here that Angels shortstop Orlando Cabrera is baseball's most exciting active player, Cabrera was the star of perhaps the season's most exciting play. Before he got to the plate to bat in last Sunday's game, Cabrera started noticing things, just as he does before every game. He'll be looking for a hitch in a pitcher's delivery that will tell him what's coming, some faulty footwork in the opposing shortstop or a center fielder who runs slower to his left than he does to his right.

Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley was honored with the Dave Snowden award at the Law and Order Awards banquet hosted by the Newport Harbor American Legion on Friday. The Newport Harbor legion post has hosted the banquet to honor local public safety agencies for 41 years. "If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be here ? they're our protectors," said legion member and event co-chairman Earl Fusselman. The Dave Snowden award, created after former Chief Snowden left the Costa Mesa Police Department in 2003, is given to an official who demonstrates a long-standing commitment to the community, Fusselman said.

dpt-bellcurve08Costa Mesa Mayor Alan Mansoor is sending out Christmas greetings to his Latino constituents early this year. Under his leadership, the City Council majority will kill the city's Job Center in a few weeks, and Tuesday night they explored avenues for turning local cops into federal immigration agents. If you interpret these actions as a holiday message to Latinos that they are not welcome in our community, perish the thought that any of our elected leaders would nurture such an idea.

I read the letter in Saturday's Daily Pilot written by our former Costa Mesa police chief, Dave Snowden, with great interest ("Community Commentary, Dec. 3). A youth in the 1950s and 1960s, I have many memories of how Costa Mesa used to be. Back in those days, we didn't have gang problems or groups of day laborers soliciting on street corners or gathering in our parks. There weren't stolen shopping carts left in the public right-of-way. Our public areas weren't decorated with graffiti.

Marisa O'Neil The American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 named Costa Mesa fire Battalion Chief Keith Fujimoto the recipient of the Dave Snowden Award at its Law and Order Awards banquet this week. This is the 40th year for the awards ceremony recognizing public safety officials in Newport-Mesa and the second year for the Dave Snowden Award. Legion members select the recipient of that award, named for a former Costa Mesa police chief, given to recognize longevity and service to the community.

Deirdre Newman Dave Snowden's aggressive pursuit of modernizing the Beverly Hills Police Department as the interim police chief inspired the city to abort its recruitment process and appoint him as the new police chief. Snowden said he is thrilled at the opportunity. "What I found here is a very professionally run organization that has pretty much been held back in making progress to the 21st century," Snowden said. "Although they've got excellent people and they've got a great commitment to policing, they really don't have the resources available that they could have if they had gone after them.

Whatcha goin' to do? "How can you not like Chief [Dave] Snowden? That's just not possible." -- Burt Santee, a Costa Mesa Police sergeant, on Snowden, who retired in 2003 from the Police Department after 16 years as chief. "In those five years, I got the kind of experience people normally get over a whole career. There were several officer-involved shootings, and I wanted to take that experience and train officers who worked in areas where they did not get that kind of experience."

Deepa Bharath Dave Snowden is not done being chief yet. On Jan. 5, the man who retired after leading Costa Mesa's police department for 16 years, will take over as the interim police chief for the city of Beverly Hills. It's going to be quite a commute from Newport Beach. But Snowden said he is up to the drive and the challenge the job itself presents. "Beverly Hills and Costa Mesa have a lot in common," he said. "They both have some high-end shopping.

Deepa Bharath His office had neither furniture nor carpet Monday morning, but Costa Mesa's new Police Chief John Hensley was definitely on board. On his first day as the city's chief, Hensley arrived bright and early and spent his first hours on the job walking around the building meeting his staff. "They're not going to come to my office," he said with a smile. "So I thought I should walk into their offices and meet with them." Over the next few weeks, Hensley said, he will meet with each police division and get to know the officers.

It is Father's Day at 11:15 a.m., and I am sitting in the middle of the newsroom with two fathers waiting patiently for me to finish this column. Tony Dodero, my boss, has a Father's Day brunch to attend, and he is anxiously awaiting my column about Costa Mesa Police Chief Dave Snowden's retirement shindig. On his way down the Orange Freeway right now is my son's father, Rodney, who also has a brunch to attend. I am stuck at this computer with a deadline looming and I am stuck.