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Chief Larry Todd
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A state police chiefs' group gives Larry Todd top honor By Jeff Kearns
Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Chief Larry Todd took the top award this year from the California Police Chiefs Association, which is made up of the state's 353 municipal police chiefs.
The Joe Molloy Memorial Award, given for outstanding leadership and professionalism, is named for a former Anaheim police chief who died of a heart attack while on duty. Molloy was a mentor to Todd.
"He was the kind of guy everyone would aspire to be," Todd says. "He was really well respected by a lot of people."
Todd became chief in 1987, when he came to Los Gatos from the Pleasanton Police Department, where he was a captain for two years. Before that, Todd spent 15 years at the West Covina Police Department, where he began his career and rose to the rank of lieutenant. "I applied here because of the kind of community it is," Todd says. "The kind of place where anyone would want to raise their children, where people are involved in the community... It's a close-knit community, and that's the kind of place I was looking to become a police chief."
Todd has pushed for a variety of programs to get the community involved in the police department, including the Volunteers in Policing program, which has about 60 volunteers who handle office work and non-threatening field duties. Todd also started the Community Service Officer program, an internship for college students interested in law enforcement.
The biggest change for Todd's department came in 1995, when Monte Sereno dumped its 38-year contract with the Sheriff's Department in favor of a new one with Los Gatos. Although controversial at the time, city officials say the arrangement worked out well. "We're clearly included with the contract, and we're not treated as an afterthought," Monte Sereno City Manager Brian Loventhal said.
Todd served as CPAC president in 1994-95, and now represents it on the board of directors at the League of California Cities.
Todd also led the CPAC committee that put out the group's official position paper on gun control ("The American Tragedy--The Need to Better Regulate Firearms") in 1995, and the CPAC was, he proudly points out, the first law enforcement organization nationally to enter the political battle by going public with a position--parts of which were subsequently adopted by the International Police Chiefs Association.
Recently, Attorney General Bill Lockyer appointed Todd to co-chair the Assault Weapons Task Force, an advisory group made up of representatives on both sides of the gun issue, to make recommendations for new assault weapons laws.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
