College District Picks Interim Police Chief

The former top officer in the Spokane Police Department has been hired as interim chief of police for the Ventura County Community College District, officials said.

Alan Chertok, 46, replaces former interim chief Jamie Skeeters, who left the position after a year to return to retirement. Skeeters retired in 1996 from the Oxnard Police Department after 30 years on the job.

Chertok will oversee the college Police Department’s 15 full-time officers until mid-September, when a permanent chief will be named. The top post pays about $60,000 in salary and benefits.

Skeeters, who is on a college selection board interviewing applicants, said the field has been narrowed from 40 to 12. A recommendation to the chancellor’s office will be made in mid-September, he said.

Chertok began the new job last month after resigning from the Spokane department over what he described as differences in management philosophy. In Spokane he was an at-will employee, which means he could have been terminated without cause.

At the time of his resignation, Chertok was under fire from Spokane city leaders for making a joke on the search for a serial killer.

Chertok said Friday he told a class of high school students he had several leads about the killer sitting on his desk and that more than one of them pointed to the city’s former chief of police.

Mike Gregoryk, the college district’s deputy chancellor, said he has no concerns over that controversy.

“He had a dispute with the city manager and in . . . government that happens,” Gregoryk said Friday.

Chertok has been in law enforcement for 25 years. Prior to Spokane, he was an assistant police chief in Newport News, Va.