Jeffrey Katz officially stepped into his role as Chesterfield County police chief on Jan. 2. (Photo by Sarah King)
Amid a sea of green uniforms at the Eanes-Pittman Public Safety Training Center in Chesterfield County stood a beaming Jeffrey Katz, the Police Department’s freshly sworn-in chief. Officers, public officials and members of the media mingled after the ceremony over refreshments and Katz — who hails from Boynton Beach, Florida — interacted easily with those in attendance, as if this were a homecoming rather than a housewarming.
An FBI National Academy graduate, Katz left his post as chief of the Boynton Beach Police Department and began his new position in Chesterfield on Jan. 2. His new job comes with more than 500 sworn personnel and roughly 200,000 annual calls for service — more than twice the numbers he managed previously, with roughly 200 personnel and 72,000 calls for service.
At his swearing-in ceremony, Katz made his expectations and priorities clear.
“It is through our relationships, not through our ranks, that we will accomplish together,” he said. “Everyone within the police department holds a unique position of authority, and with this authority comes responsibility. I don't care what's on your collar or on your sleeve, I care what's in your heart — and I care that our authority is exercised in a way that reflects the best of who we are as people, as a community and as a society.”
The remarks may seem soft coming from a new leader, but Katz’s history indicates otherwise. He is largely credited with cleaning house at the Boynton Beach Police Department, which, prior to his promotion to chief in 2013, was riddled with misconduct allegations and cases spanning from falsified police reports and illegal searches to watching porn on the job and trafficking drugs.
After Katz took over in September of that year, he immediately began taking steps to change the culture of the department: outfitting officers in less intimidating uniforms than the bulletproof vests and weapons strapped across their chests they’d worn previously; implementing more stringent and diverse hiring practices and even calling in the FBI to conduct investigations of his own officers.
“Our authority is not about privilege — it is our responsibility to use every tool at our disposal to serve others,” he said to his new personnel on Tuesday afternoon. “It means holding ourselves and each other accountable; it means building one another up; it means challenging existing standards and exploring how we can work together to raise the bar even higher and help each other stretch to achieve these new benchmarks.”
Katz holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, a master’s in business leadership and, as of October 2017, was working toward a doctorate in organizational psychology. He has also completed several leadership and management courses through Harvard and the University of Notre Dame.
The new chief made it clear that his officers and their families would be his first priority, but in exchange he expects excellence and personal responsibility to themselves, each other and the community.
He was selected to lead the Chesterfield Police Department after the September retirement of Col. Thierry Dupuis. In December, however, Dupuis went back to work as interim police chief in Charlottesville after a scathing report on that department’s handling of the August white nationalist rally that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer and two state troopers.
Katz previously worked in varoius aspects of law enforcement, including communications, K9 and marine enforcement, internal affairs, recruiting, grant procurement, agency accreditation and grievance coordination. In his new position, he pledged commitment to community engagement and leading by example — “I will not drive by one of my officers who’s on a call or traffic stop alone” — to reflect a heart of service, which he said “is the standard by which our success will ultimately be measured.”
As for Chesterfield’s downward crime trend during the last decade, Katz says he believes it’s realistic to expect that to change eventually — particularly as the population of the metro area expands.
“I hope that doesn't happen anytime soon, but as you have a growing population you have a growing opportunity for crime,” he said. The chief added that he looks forward to working across the region with other law enforcement departments to “continue the downward trend,” but he does not expect it — despite the local departments’ best efforts — to “last another 10 years.”
Katz concluded his prepared remarks Tuesday by leaving the audience with a sense of shared responsibility: “I expect those who present a problem will also present a prospective solution and that they will be prepared to do some of the heavy lifting associated with addressing the concern they shared,” he said. “And that's within the department and within the broader community.”
