Congratulations, Captain Meehan: updated

Captain Mike Meehan was the commander of the East Precinct from 2004 to 2006ish and was very helpful in our ongoing struggles with the street crimes that emanated from Deano's Bar / Club Chocolate City.

Since then he's been in charge of many SPD divisions, as summarized in this SPD Blotter posting from July:

Captain Mike Meehan, a 23-year veteran, is leaving the Narcotics Section to take over the Violent Crimes Section, which consists of overseeing the Homicide, Robbery, CSI, Gang, Polygraph, Bias Crimes and Fugitive Units.  Captain Meehan has previously commanded East Precinct, Narcotics, Vice, Field Training and Audit, Accreditation and Policy.

Yesterday I was contacted by a reporter from the Berkeley Daily Planet (a free twice-weekly paper): their paper had just broken the story that Captain Meehan will (assuming he's OK'd by their City Council on Tuesday) be the next Police Chief in Berkeley, California.


I hope you will join me in congratulating Captain Meehan on his promotion. I note that (while the East Precinct has had many commanders in my time here), quite a few of them have gone on to more senior positions: John Diaz (SPD Interim Chief), Nick Metz (SPD Assistant Chief), Landy Black (Davis, CA Police Chief), and now Captain Meehan.


More details of Mike's promotion may be found on Capitol Hill Seattle and on the Seattle PI blog, or by a quick Googling:

By the way, I noted that the Berkeley paper, the SPD Blog, the above Google search,  and many of the other sources were using the same photo, which seemed strangely familiar to me. I eventually realized that it was one I had taken, in March 2004 at an East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition meeting, and posted on the old Miller website.  The PI had obtained it from the SPD media relations office, who are apparently using it as their standard picture of Mike. I'm flattered!

By way of thanking Mike, and sending him on his way, here is that photo, together with one from his 3 hour fact-finding tour of our neighborhood.  His (solo) visit with our neighbors, his ready ability to communicate, and his frank, honest appraisal of what SPD could and could not do to help us, was what really impressed me about him, and made it so easy for me to recommend him to the Berkeley people when asked.

PS: One way to follow Captain Meehan's progress in Berkeley will be via the Berkeley Daily Planet's reporter's tweets, which of course remind Seattleites of this song.


Update (11/20/09): The Berkeley university newspaper, the Daily Cal, has an article about Captain Meehan, with quotes from me and from Stephanie Tschida, chair of the East Precinct Crime Prevention Coalition.


The Berkeley Daily Planet has another article about Captain Meehan, with quotes from me and from Dominic Holden of the Stranger.