‘One of Our Best,’ Sheriff Says : Academy Head Recalls Days as Scrawny Cadet

As a scrawny youth growing up in San Diego, Dennis Kollar “never for a second” entertained the thought of becoming a law enforcement officer.

Kollar graduated from St. Augustine High School and attended San Diego State University with the idea of becoming a metallurgist. But after being drafted into the Army and spending 10 months doing intelligence work, Kollar decided to give law enforcement a try.

Kollar had to overcome one major obstacle--as a thin, baby-faced 22-year-old recruit who looked about 15, he was not exactly an ideal choice to intimidate criminals.

In 1969, Kollar went through the “Fighting 33rd Academy” and spent his first 18 months as a deputy working at Central Jail downtown. He said the jail assignment helped build his confidence to go to work on patrol.

Today, Kollar, 39, is a lieutenant and director of the Sheriff’s Academy. He keeps his academy photograph in his Southwestern College office as a reminder of his humble beginnings. He said he occasionally will show the photo to cheer up a cadet who is having trouble coping with the rigors of the academy.

“I remind them if this awesome specimen could make it through the academy, they can, too,” Kollar said.

Kollar was assigned in October, 1984, to launch the Sheriff’s Academy at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. The Sheriff’s Department and the San Diego Police Department had jointly operated the San Diego Regional Academy at Miramar College during the previous four years.

Frustrated by the Spartan facilities at Miramar College and the school district’s “cheap” ways in disbursing state funds for law enforcement training, Sheriff John Duffy directed his staff to find a new location. Kollar was left to start the academy from scratch without so much as a campus office.

“He didn’t walk into a nice easy job,” Duffy said. “And Dennis has always been able to do that. He’s one of our best.”

In the less than two years since he was assigned to run the academy, Kollar has received an education on how to weather crises.

Consider the recent 74th Sheriff’s Academy. In the second week, Kollar and his staff split their time between reassuring cadets stunned by the murder of classmate Kelly Bazer and responding to questions raised by an inspection team from a national law enforcement accreditation commission.

In addition:

- Cadet Marcus McAnally was fired when Kollar learned that McAnally had been dismissed from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department in 1981.

- Another cadet was reprimanded for continuing to date and then marrying one of Kollar’s secretaries during the academy.

- A third cadet was let go during the final week of the academy for cheating on an exam.

Such problems have not been isolated to the 74th academy. Since Kollar was appointed as academy director in 1984:

- One student sued the Sheriff’s Department after he was injured during a vehicle operations class.

- A group of cadets launched unsubstantiated charges of a cheating scandal.

Two women were reinstated by the Sheriff’s Department after they accused the academy of sexual discrimination in its physical agility test.

Today, three months after the 74th academy graduated, Kollar and the Sheriff’s Department face a possible lawsuit from McAnally, who claims he was required to work more than 100 hours of overtime without pay. McAnally said he would file a class-action suit if the Sheriff’s Department refused to pay the lost wages.

Some police administrators might react to such events by throwing a tantrum, cussing out the chain of command or, at the very least, slamming a fist on a table.

But Kollar hardly made a peep. In his easygoing, soft-spoken style, Kollar accepted the crises as the “the price we had to pay” for starting the academy.

Kollar is so mild-mannered that his staff members count the number of times he has raised his voice in nearly two years as director of the academy.

So far, he has yelled twice--at one of his training officers on a bad day and at a federal investigator who irked Kollar with his demands to interrupt a class to see an instructor.