Escondido Police Chief to Quit
Escondido Police Chief Jim Connole, credited by many with helping to transform the Police Department into a progressive organization, has announced that he will retire May 1.
City Manager Vern Hazen said Connole, who is an attorney, will take a job as an administrator with a Carlsbad firm.
Hazen said Friday he will ask the City Council to spend up to $15,000 for a professional executive search firm to find a new chief.
Connole, who is in his late 50s, quit his job as assistant police chief with the San Diego Police Department to become the top man in the northern San Diego County city on Jan. 1, 1978.
Among his accomplishments, Connole was instrumental in bringing police dogs to the department, instituting physical fitness requirements for officers, putting radar in police cars, and creating the Special Investigations Unit and a drunken driving enforcement team.
“The department is a lot better now than it was before he came,” Mayor Jim Rady said.
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