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When Menlo Park Police Chief Bob Jonsen departs to head Palo Alto’s police department on Jan. 5, Menlo Park will have an interim chief with a familiar face: Commander Dave Bertini.
Menlo Park City Manager Alex McIntyre has named Cmdr. Bertini to serve as the city’s interim police chief while the city recruits and hires a permanent police chief. The search process is expected to last four to six months, according to city staff.
Cmdr. Bertini said he is also interested in the permanent job as the city’s top cop. Meanwhile, though, he plans to expand or launch several programs.
“I look forward to the opportunity,” Cmdr. Bertini told the Almanac. Over the next few months, he said, he hopes to expand community outreach and bolster traffic enforcement.
Among other ideas he’s “not ready to go public with yet,” he said, he plans to launch a “Chat with the Chief” community outreach program where people can talk about “what’s going right and what we can improve on,” he said. He is also considering adding more members to the police chief’s advisory board.
On the city’s eastern side, he said, he plans to increase the number of officers working on traffic enforcement by motorcycle.
He said he plans to continue working with other city departments to solve complex problems. In the city’s recent response to traffic in the Willows, he said, the police department collaborated with the city’s public works and transportation departments to come up with a plan.
As interim police chief, he said he also plans to keep teaching at the police training academy at the College of San Mateo, a commitment of about 60 hours a year. “It forces me to be proficient at the laws of arrest, search and seizure,” he said, adding that doing so allows him to get to know new police recruits who will be working in the city.
Cmdr. Bertini started in Menlo Park in 2011, and since then, has worked as a patrol commander and in administrative services, leading initiatives in the department to improve technology and transparency.
In 2015, he spent six months working as the city’s interim human services director.
He currently oversees the police department’s patrol division, which covers patrol officers, traffic, parking, and the Reserve and Explorer programs.
Prior to coming to Menlo Park, he worked in Pacifica. He has about 30 years of experience in law enforcement, according to city staff. He said he made the transition for several reasons: to work with a department that was “on the cutting edge,” to be challenged more, and to escape the coastal fog.
He began his career as a police explorer with the Pacifica Police Department. In 1986, he was hired as a reserve officer, and became a public safety dispatcher the following year. In 1988, he was hired as a full-time police officer and in 2008, was promoted to captain.
Cmdr. Bertini holds a master’s degree in military history from Norwich University in Vermont, a bachelor’s degree in business management from St. Mary’s College and an associate’s degree in administration of justice from the College of San Mateo.
Congrats,
Now would be a great time to have the police department taken over by the Sheriffs Office. It would probably save our city 75% of our total city budget. Since Menlo Park PD contracts most primary services to the county except dispatch, consolidation of services makes sense.