SUNDAY STORY:One goal met, plenty to go

Christopher Shawkey started his law enforcement career as a recruit in Phoenix with 100 dollars in his pocket, no car and nowhere to live. Now the 26-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department is in a slightly less precarious situation as Costa Mesa’s new chief of police. But he’s still missing one thing — his family, who won’t show up till June.

“It’s difficult,” he said in a recent interview. “But even if they were here, I’d be out all the time getting to know the department. So it works out in that regard. It’s hard, but we’re going to make it.”

Shawkey’s swearing-in on Jan. 2 was attended by wife, Pamela, his five children, his brother-in-law, nephews and nieces, and friends from the department. In his speech to city government officials after swearing to uphold the law and the Constitution, he made another oath, turning to his family and said, “I promise to be the best father I possibly can.”

They all flew out to see him take the helm of a police department, something he said he’d dreamed of since eighth grade, even as Pamela’s father lay critically ill back in Phoenix. The family flew back that night, and Shawkey’s father-in-law died last week. Shawkey went to Phoenix this weekend for the funeral.

But as he sits in his new office at the Costa Mesa Police Department headquarters next to City Hall, the issue at hand for Shawkey is getting to know a staff he expects to lead for years to come, and getting his expectations for the department across.

“The most important thing is to treat people the way you want to be treated,” he said. “If it were one of your relatives dealing with the police, how would you want them treated? You’d want respect and fairness and dignity.”

Shawkey said that despite never running a department before, he’s been preparing for a long time. As a commander in Phoenix for years, he’s had a variety of leadership positions, including heading up a precinct in which 230 officers served 300,000 people. There’s an advantage to a slightly smaller area like Costa Mesa, however.

“You really get to know everybody,” he said. “It’s a very close-knit department. The saying that the police are like a family really applies here.”

A tightly knit staff needs someone who can gain their trust, Shawkey said. The key is to have an open-door policy so officers feel comfortable, and to stay visible, he said.

“You have to let them know you’re always there,” he said. “At 2 a.m., I’ll be out doing ride-alongs. Or if I’m driving through and see officers out on a call, I’ll say hi.”

The department Shawkey is inheriting from interim chief Steve Staveley is very professional and has high morale, he said.

And he said the department knows how to handle the crime that concerns residents most.

There’s no longer a controversy over police officers enforcing immigration law, he said. While they will continue to evaluate the system of having an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Costa Mesa Jail, he said it seems to be working well.

When it comes to gang enforcement, “we stay on top of things,” he said. “We know exactly who they are and where they’re at.”

Graffiti enforcement is crucial to the anti-gang effort, he said, praising the city’s program for painting over any that is found.

Even recruitment, which was a problem as recently as June, is looking up. He said the department has recruited as many officers as there is money allocated for.

Shawkey said the department is doing a good job hiring new officers despite a job market in which the LAPD is offering extra bonuses and a strong private sector was luring some good candidates away from public service.

“But it’s about the reputation of the organization,” he said. “What’s the sense people get of the Costa Mesa PD? Am I allowed to do the job I want to do? That goes a long way, more so than money.”

Besides, he said, they were doing it despite the toughest background checks in the city, screening out more than 9 out of 10 otherwise qualified candidates.

“We lose a lot of what look like good applicants,” he said. “But we need trust. [Officers] have the power to take someone’s liberty, or even their life.”

Shawkey said that for now there were enough officers, but he wouldn’t refuse more.

“I obviously would like to have more,” he said “We’d like to keep pace with growth in the city. We’d like to continue to build.”

What is all the hard work for? Shawkey offered an answer in his speech after being sworn in: “Man is essentially good. They need someone to protect that good, to enforce those laws and codes of conduct.”

Shawkey’s office, not quite decorated a week into his new job, holds photos of his two loves outside of work — his family and baseball. There’s the Arizona Diamondbacks winning the 2001 world series against the New York Yankees, a game he proudly says he attended.

There’s the Little League team he coached in Phoenix and a rather prophetic vacation photo of the Shawkeys in Newport Beach early last summer.

“We’ve come out here before, but that one was right before the application deadline for this job,” he said. “I was out on the beach, and I thought, ‘Man, this would be a good place to work.’ ”