Biographies of the 11 SPD chief candidates

Brief biographies of the 11 candidates for Seattle police chief:

Judy Bradshaw

Chief of police, Des Moines, Iowa

A program set up by Police Chief Judy Bradshaw allows neighborhood groups in Des Moines to petition for their assigned sergeant. The officers attend neighborhood meetings and react to concerns expressed by residents.

The program has cut down on crime rates and 911 calls, since people know an officer who can help them with smaller problems, according to David Lillard, an assistant chief at the 379-officer department.

Bradshaw, 51, has been with the Des Moines Police Department for nearly 30 years. In three years as chief, Bradshaw has developed a reputation for being open and energetic, Lillard said.

When two Des Moines police officers were accused of brutality for beating an African-American couple after a traffic stop, Bradshaw told the officers she would fire them if they didn't resign. They did.

Bradshaw faced criticism, though, for waiting too long to put the officers on leave.

Rick Braziel

Chief of police, Sacramento, Calif.

Rick Braziel, 50, was sworn in as Sacramento's chief two years ago.

The 30-year department veteran is co-author of the book "Cop Talk: Essential Communication Skills for Community Policing," and is considered a nationally recognized expert on neighborhood policing, according to a department biography.

Braziel said his major accomplishments over the past two years include partnering with private-sector businesses to provide leadership and management training for supervisors. The goal, he said, is to incorporate successful private-sector practices.

"The one thing we don't do well is efficiency," Braziel said. "Process gets in the way of results. How do we look at results, not the process?"

Braziel has a degree from California State University, Sacramento.

In a message Monday to his department staff members, Braziel said he is not "looking to get out of" his current position, according to The Sacramento Bee's website. However, he said he decided he wanted to pursue the opportunity after being approached by an executive search firm.

Adam Burden II

Former assistant chief of police, Miami

Former Assistant Chief Adam Burden II rose through the ranks at the Miami Police Department until he retired in February after 23 years to work as deputy chief of police in the nearby city of Opa-Locka. During his time with Miami police, Burden led undercover officers through narcotics operations, supervised the internal-affairs division, and in 1998 became the youngest person in department history to ascend to the rank of major, according to a department biography.

As a major at the department, Burden commanded the city's North District and the specialized-operations section, including the K-9, mounted, marine patrol, traffic enforcement, crime-suppression teams, bomb squad and SWAT team.

In 2009, Burden was named one of South Florida's 50 Most Powerful and Influential Black Professionals by Success Magazine. Burden has a degree from Barry University, in South Florida, and a master's in public management from St. Thomas University, also in Florida.

Ronald Davis

Chief of police, East Palo Alto, Calif.

Ronald Davis, 46, has spent five years focusing on reform "in a city once dubbed the murder capital of the United States," according to a biography posted on the department website.

Davis was appointed chief at the department, in the San Francisco Bay Area, after 19 years with the Oakland Police Department. At East Palo Alto, Davis has pushed community policing efforts, partnered with the state prison system to implement a parolee-re-entry program, and served as a police-reform expert for the U.S. Department of Justice.

"We're working with parolees. We're quasi-parole officers," Davis said. "We're changing the recidivism rate and the crime rate."

Davis attributes a drop in the city's homicide rate, 29 percent over the past three years, to the parolee-re-entry program.

Davis has a bachelor's degree from Southern Illinois University.

John Diaz

Interim police chief, Seattle Police Department

John Diaz, 52, was appointed interim chief in March 2009, in anticipation of the departure of former Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who left in May to become President Obama's drug czar.

A San Francisco native, Diaz served as an Army criminal investigator before joining the Seattle Police Department in 1980. First working as a patrol officer in the department's South Precinct, Diaz was promoted to sergeant, lieutenant and captain in the East Precinct, and served as precinct captain from 1995 to 2000. He also has commanded the department's internal-investigations unit, the gang unit and violent-crimes section.

He was named assistant chief in 2000 and a year later was promoted to deputy chief after a department reorganization, overseeing the Operations Bureau, which includes special operations, patrol and criminal investigations.

Rick Gregory

Chief administrative officer/acting public-safety director, New Castle County (Del.) Police Department

Rick Gregory, 47, was director of the Florida Highway Patrol before he became chief of police in New Castle County in September 2006. He resigned in March as police chief to become a deputy to the county executive.

According to a news report, Gregory focused on community policing during his time as police chief, and the county's crime rate fell by 10 percent despite budget cuts. He has experience in homeland security from his time at the Florida Highway Patrol, and was among officers in charge of hurricane evacuations there.

He was a firefighter before becoming a Florida state trooper in 1983, according to The News Journal of Wilmington, Del.

Clark Kimerer

Assistant chief, Seattle Police Department

Clark Kimerer, 54, a deputy chief since 2001, joined the Seattle Police Department in 1983 after graduating from Johns College in Santa Fe, N.M. Promoted to sergeant in 1987, Kimerer was the chief negotiator for the department's hostage-negotiations team from 1985 to 1992, according to the department's website.

He was promoted to lieutenant in 1989 and was captain of the West Precinct from 1992 to 1996. As a captain, he also commanded the internal-investigations, vice and narcotics units. Kimerer became an assistant chief in 1999 and served as chief of staff until his promotion to deputy chief in 2001.

Kimerer was the youngest assistant chief in the department's history, earning the promotion at age 43. His mother, Noreen Skagen, and stepfather, Roy Skagen, both retired from the department as assistant chiefs.

He has been considered for chief twice previously.

Anne Kirkpatrick

Chief of police, Spokane

Anne Kirkpatrick, 50, who previously served as police chief in Ellensburg and Federal Way before joining the Spokane department in 2006, has carved out a reputation as a no-nonsense chief and strong believer in community outreach. She announced her intention to seek the Seattle job in February when she told Spokane officials she had applied for the position.

The Spokesman-Review reported that Kirkpatrick applied last year to be San Francisco's police chief but downplayed her action by saying that as a woman leading a large department she is often recruited. The job went to another candidate.

The Spokesman-Review reported that, while support for Kirkpatrick has been mixed on the police force, she enjoys broad support from city leaders, who credit her with making officers more accountable and improving ties to the community.

In April, union leaders representing the Spokane Police Department's officers said a majority of the Spokane Police Guild's 268 members voted no-confidence in the "office" of the police chief, but didn't disclose the vote tally, The Spokesman-Review reported.

But the department's lieutenants and captains gave her a vote of approval after learning of the union's vote.

Jim Pugel

Assistant chief, Seattle Police Department

A graduate of the University of Washington, Jim Pugel, 50, became a volunteer reserve officer with the Seattle Police Department in 1981 before being hired in 1983. He was assigned to the SWAT team in 1986 and was promoted to sergeant in 1990, according to the department's website.

He has served as watch commander and operations lieutenant in the East Precinct, commander of the sexual-assault unit and administrative aide to the chief.

Pugel was promoted to captain of the West Precinct in 1999, and was incident commander during the World Trade Organization riots that November. Pugel was named assistant chief in 2000 and commands the investigations bureau, overseeing investigations by the department's homicide, robbery, fraud, auto-theft, narcotics, major crimes, Internet crimes against children, vice, domestic-violence, sexual assault and crime-scene investigation units.

Pugel oversaw last fall's investigation into the killing of Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night and the subsequent arrest of Christopher Monfort.

John Romero

Chief of police, Lawrence, Mass.

John Romero, 59, grew up in the Bronx and spent the early part of his career in New York. In 1999, he became chief of police in Lawrence, a suburb of Boston. A high percentage of immigrants make up the city's population of about 85,000. The department has 160 officers.

Romero has overseen a 40 percent drop in serious crime in Lawrence, according to the department's statistics. He has been so successful that he was rumored last year to be considering a run for mayor, according to media reports.

The city was considered the most dangerous in Massachusetts when he took over the department, but crime has dropped dramatically. With the drop in crime has come complaints from the American Civil Liberties Union and others about police brutality and abuse of force, according to reports.

Romero's crackdown on insurance fraud helped lower auto-insurance rates, and he also has targeted auto theft and arson with success, Mayor William Lantigua said.

Lisa Womack

Former police chief, Elgin, Ill.

Lisa Womack, 44, resigned as chief of the Elgin Police Department, near Chicago, on April 1 amid a dispute with city officials, according to news reports. She had served as Elgin's first female police chief since August 2005, after previously serving as police chief for 15 months in Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston, news reports say.

Although welcomed in Elgin with praise over what were described as her outstanding credentials, she ran into complaints about her lack of public involvement and time spent away from Illinois' eight-largest city to attend conferences and meetings, according to an editorial about her departure in the suburban Daily Herald newspaper.

Womack stepped down after Elgin's City Council had given her a deadline to accept a deal to resign or face termination, according to news reports.

A native of Texas, Womack became interested in law enforcement in college and earned a criminal-justice degree from Texas Woman's University, the Chicago Tribune reported when she was hired in Elgin.

She spent most of her police career in Arlington, Texas, working her way up to deputy chief in 2001 after joining that department in 1992, according to reports.

Womack told the Tribune that she was a strong believer in establishing strong relationships between police and citizens. "Community policing is the way we do our business," she said.

Seattle Times staff reporters Jennifer Sullivan, Sara Jean Green, Steve Miletich and Emily Heffter and news researchers Miyoko Wolf and David Turim contributed to this report, which includes information from Times archives.