Description
Current and retired members of the CPCA will share some of their leadership experiences and principles that made them successful. Learning from these experiences can be valuable in moving forward, especially in these challenging times.
Contributors
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Chief Pete Dunbar (ret.), Pleasant Hill Police Department
Pete Dunbar started with the Oakland Police Department in 1982. He served in a variety of assignments and positions in Patrol, Investigations and Training. In 1999, he was appointed as a Deputy Chief, where he was assigned to Field Operations and Services. In February of 2006, he was appointed as Chief of Police of the Pleasant Hill Police Department and retired as Chief on September 28, 2012. On October 8, 2012, he was appointed as the Director of the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) where he worked until November of 2014. He received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Performance for his work while at POST. Dunbar received a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from the University of Santa Clara in 1982. He received a Master of Arts Degree in Education from San Diego State University in 2002.
Chief Dunbar has taught Strategic and Succession Planning in the POST Management Course for the San Diego Regional Training Center. He has been an instructor for the Chief’s Association in the topics of Ethics, Strategic and Succession Planning and the Leadership Challenge. He facilitated the Becoming a Police Chief Class (formerly The Role of the Police Chief) for four years and developed and facilitated Succeeding as a Police Chief since its inception. He has consulted with several departments regarding strategic and succession planning, including Huntington Beach and Grass Valley Police Departments. He is a graduate of POST Master Instructor Class 2.
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Barney Melekian, (Ret) Chief, Pasadena Police Department
Melekian was chief of police of Pasadena for 13 years ending in 2009. He then served from 2009-2013 for the U.S. Department of Justice as director of Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). Attorney General Eric Holder appointed Melekian to the position at COPS, which provides grants, training and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.
Melekian earned a bachelor’s degree in American History and a master’s degree in Public Administration, both from California State University, Northridge. In August 2012, he was awarded a doctorate in Policy, Planning and Development from the University of Southern California for his work on police disciplinary systems. His doctoral work on values-based discipline was awarded the Sol Price Award as the outstanding doctoral project of 2012 in USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development.
In addition to serving as police chief of Pasadena, Melekian spent 23 years with the Santa Monica Police Department, where he was awarded the Medal of Valor in 1978 and the Medal of Courage in 1980. He also served as the acting fire chief for Pasadena for six months in 1998 and as the interim city manager from January to October 2008.
Melekian served as president of the California Police Chiefs Association in 2009. He was the president of the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association from Jan. 1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2001, the only person to have been asked to serve two terms in that position. He served on the National Board of Directors for the Police Executive Research Forum from 2002 until 2006. Melekian was also the former COPPs Director and Chair, on the Board of Directors for the National Police Foundation, and former Undersheriff with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.
Melekian’s military experience includes two extended active duty assignments, during which he received numerous citations and awards for exemplary service. -
Darryl McAllister, (Ret) Chief, CPCA Program Coordinator & Moderator
Darryl McAllister’s policing career spans 37 years. He devoted the first 32 years of service to the Hayward, California community, rising through the ranks and receiving numerous prestigious honors along the way. In 2013 he migrated to the city next door to serve as the chief of police in Union City. His professional legacy focuses primarily on redefining the importance of police-community engagement to promote trust and transparency in today’s policing.
Following his 2018 retirement from a storied policing career, he began his new calling to the private sector healthcare arena, where he provides leadership and project management essential to implement large-scale innovation and partnership efforts throughout the Sutter Health enterprise.
Despite his new role in healthcare safety, McAllister continues to impact the policing profession by training police chiefs and other law enforcement executives on how to successfully lead organizational change, strategic planning, and community trust-building efforts. He currently serves as a course coordinator with the California Police Chiefs Association, and an instructor with the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, delivering for each a statewide executive training course designed to help recently-appointed and aspiring chiefs of police succeed in their role. McAllister is also an educator, previously serving as lead faculty at the University of Phoenix, and now as a faculty member of Chabot College.
For two decades he has served many community organizations, including as the President of the Board at the St. Rose Hospital Foundation, a member of the advisory board of the University of San Francisco’s International Institute of Criminal Justice Leadership, the California State Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training’s Command College Program, the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and several nonprofit organizations. He is a recipient of numerous awards for his work in policing and in the community. He is a recipient of Hayward’s Police Officer of the Year Award, and University of Phoenix’s Faculty Member of the Year for the San Francisco Bay Area Campus region. In 2015 he was selected by the Southern Alameda County NAACP for its most prestigious award: “Person of the Year”.
In 2017, the International Association of Chiefs of Police highlighted the Union City PD as a model agency for community policing and trust-building, principally as a result of the Connecting With Community Campaign McAllister shepherded throughout the organization and the community. In 2016, McAllister was one of approximately 100 chiefs of police from around the country invited to the White House to take part in a debriefing about community policing and trust-building initiatives in America. During the day-long briefing, President Obama personally met with the group to espouse the tenets of his 21st Century Policing initiative.
McAllister holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Occupational Studies from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master’s Degree in Administrative Development from Alliant International University. He is now completing coursework at Saint Mary’s College of California toward a Doctorate in Educational Leadership. He is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and an alumnus of the California Command College. -
Chief Sylvia Moir, Napa Police Department
A California native, Chief Moir has over three decades of local police practice; with over one decade as a Chief of Police. Chief Moir is known as an executive who is calm in chaos, enthusiastic about the profession of policing and focused on positively influencing the culture and climate of the organizations she leads through strategy and policy work to better serve the employees and community. In February 2021 she was appointed as the Interim Chief in Napa CA where she was brought in to use her experience to strengthen the organization. She was the Chief of Police in Tempe Arizona 2016-2020 leading the department through multiple crises and advancements, and the Chief of El Cerrito California Police Department from 2010-2016. She spent most of her early career with the Sacramento Police Department where she served in every division of the department and she was the Incident Commander on hundreds of planned and spontaneous events, a trainer in several policing subjects, and a member of the Sacramento Police Honor Guard. Notably, she completed rigorous and humbling training with the US Army Old Guard at Fort Myer, VA and Arlington National Cemetery.
She is the Principal of the Macrae Group specializing in public safety strategy, tactics, and education, the chair of the Community Policing Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, an advisor for WRAP Technologies, and a member of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force. She served on the Executive Board of the Arizona and California Associations of Chiefs of Police and is a past President of the Police Executive Research Forum.
Chief Moir is in demand as a speaker and in 2019, Chief Moir participated in TEDx SoMa’s Modern Campfire series, where she discussed the complexity of modern-day policing and the importance of practicing mindfulness in the profession. During the talk, Chief Moir spoke about the impact of mindfulness on her leadership, her employees, and the promise that the practices are showing for de-escalation, sound decision making, humanity, and resilience.
Chief Moir holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from California State University, Sacramento, a Master of Arts in Organizational Management, and a Master of Science degree from the Naval Postgraduate School - Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
She is married, lives in Arizona, and enjoys reading, hiking, running, and almost anything outside.