Police Department Gets a New Chief

City Manager Robert R. “Bud” Ovrom on Tuesday selected a 20-year department veteran to head the Burbank Police Department, naming Capt. Thomas Hoefel to the post effective Jan. 3.

Hoefel heads the department’s Investigations Division, responsible for probing robberies, homicides and other serious crimes. He will succeed Chief David Newsham, who is to retire Dec. 30.

Newsham is stepping down after commanding the 165-member force during a decade when a safe city of 102,000 became even safer. Since 1990, violent crimes in Burbank dropped by 21%, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations crime index.

“This is not a department that is in need of major changes,” Hoefel said. “Chief Newsham is leaving a department that’s filled with quality employees who have a track record of service to the community.”

In appointing Hoefel, Ovrom cited his extensive education, which includes a law degree and two master’s degrees.

“He’s the most qualified police chief I’ve seen in my 30 years in the business,” said Ovrom. “He’s been preparing himself for this job for his whole career.”

That career began in 1978 when Hoefel was an investigator with the Cal State Northridge campus police.

He went on to earn a law degree from Whittier College Law School, a master’s degree in management from Cal Poly Pomona and a master’s in public administration from his undergraduate alma mater, CSUN.

Hoefel, 48, has served in every rank of the Police Department and attended the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.

With crime on the decline, the next chief said he would like to see greater involvement on the part of officers in their community.

Hoefel is involved with groups such as the Burbank Human Relations Council and the Burbank Coordinating Council.

He plays in a band named Mutual Aid, which raises money for police-related charities.