Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
Cover Story
Top Cops Five veteran Sunnyvale Public Safety officers receive promotions to lieutenant By Jana Seshadri Officer Kim Bianconi is a trailblazer. Besides being one of the five officers of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety promoted to lieutenant on June 9, she is also the first woman to receive such a promotion since the department was established in 1950. Bianconi said she feels even more accomplished and capable of serving more of the community's needs because she is trained as both a police and fire officer. Besides being extremely cost-effective for the department, combining police and fire skills also enhances an officer's role and duty to the community he or she serves, Bianconi said. Sunnyvale is one of the few cities in the nation to combine its fire and police departments into its public safety department, explained Capt. Byron Pipkin, special operations officer for Public Safety. Even though it was a controversial decision back in 1950, when the public safety concept was a relatively new one, and the chief of the department resigned over it, the system works well now in Sunnyvale, Pipkin said. Dispelling the common misconception that being a police/fire officer is all about physical strength, Bianconi emphasized that the public safety business—like any other—has to do more with brains than brawn. "It's about being a good problem solver and decision maker and having compassion for people," Bianconi said. "There is no age, height or weight requirement to become a public safety officer." Although physical fitness is a requirement, it often takes good communication and problem-solving skills to settle a confrontational or argumentative issue, she said. Bianconi said officers find themselves in dangerous situations, confronting armed and dangerous people, all the time and it's crucial that they deal with them "on an even keel." Although she has never had to take another life in her 13 years as a police officer, Bianconi said she has been in many situations where she has had to break up physical fights and calm tempers simply by talking to people. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, Bianconi said education has always been very important to her. An avid athlete, she played basketball and softball while studying for her bachelor of science degree in business at California State University, Chico. Although she had no specific idea about what she wanted to do after she graduated, she was sure it would be "something to do with the outdoors." She said she found her niche through a family friend who was a police officer in Santa Cruz. Encouraged by this friend, Bianconi underwent the preliminary police testing and passed it. After completing the 27-week training process at the Evergreen Police Academy in 1990, Bianconi worked with the Santa Cruz Police Department for five years, during which time she started to hear "a lot of good things about Sunnyvale Public Safety." She soon took and passed the test with the department. The test is a comprehensive one that incorporates skills needed for both the police and fire departments. According to Bianconi, each city tests its applicants differently, depending on its community and department needs. Running up a flight of steps carrying a 45-pound water hose under one arm and a heavy water container on her back and scaling a 6-foot wall were just two of the required skills she had to demonstrate. Passing the initial testing was just the first step to becoming a Sunnyvale officer, Bianconi said. With the successful completion of the police training under her belt, Bianconi underwent 14 weeks of training that familiarized her with all areas of fire protection and fire safety. Soon afterward Bianconi completed a week of emergency medical technician (EMT) training. As a police/fire officer and an EMT, a Sunnyvale public safety officer offers a great deal to the community, Bianconi said. A public safety officer does more than policing at an accident or a fire scene; he or she also provides first aid or other emergency medical services before the paramedics get there. A police officer may not be equipped or trained to provide all those services, she said. After eight years with Public Safety and the recent promotion to lieutenant, Bianconi is happy where she is—at the Sunnyvale Fire Station 4, where she served two years ago as well. Bianconi said she does plenty at the station during a normal 24-hour shift. Managing a crew of four officers, Bianconi's day is filled with administrative choresÑanswering fire calls, supervising daily drills, going out to inspect buildings, providing support to other fire academies and helping out during her off days by going on patrol. While slightly more comfortable on patrol, Bianconi said she is adept at both police and fire duties. A certified state fire instructor and a background investigator, Bianconi is active in hiring and recruiting for the department. After the initial fire training, officers are also required to spend at least six months undergoing fire training at Station 4, for which Bianconi is responsible. As a field training officer, Bianconi rides with newer officers on the fire engine to show them the ropes. The two engines that the station houses are completely checked every morning and given a thorough once-over, she said. Her four days off after six long work days—sometimes comprising 24-hour shifts—make up for her hectic schedule, Bianconi said. Bianconi is constantly looking at ways to make residents aware of what they should know about their own safety and protection. "I take an active role in educating the public," she said. "At every opportunity, I try to go into the schools and teach the kids about fire safety and police protection." Steve Fisk, fire operations field training officer and president of the public safety officers association, reports directly to Bianconi. "Kim's great—she's very talented," Fisk said. "It's hard to beat her drive and motivation." Despite her highly demanding position, Bianconi says that what she enjoys most is working with people. However, she said she also finds dealing with the different people she encounters the most challenging aspect of her job. "We have 230 sworn personnel in the department and each one brings his or her own personality and different qualities to the job," she said. "It's important to look at each one as an individual. My job is utilize all those qualities for all the different tasks we have on the job." To qualify herself further, Bianconi said she plans to attend once-a-month distance learning classes offered by the California State University, Long Beach, and obtain her master's degree in interdisciplinary studies with an emphasis on emergency services administration. As to why it has taken more than five decades for a female officer to move up to a lieutenant's position, Bianconi said there are many reasons. "The average tenure for a woman in our department is much less than for a male," Pipkin said. "If a male officer is here for 10 years, then a woman officer would stay for, say, six years." Over the years, some women officers were not really interested in promotions, Pipkin said. On average, it takes a public safety officer a little longer to climb up the career ladder and receive promotions than a conventional police officer or a fire officer because of the added responsibilities and extra training that he or she has to undergo, he added. It's very hard for either a man or a woman to juggle a demanding career with long working hours and a family life, Bianconi said. But, Bianconi, who is single and still lives in Santa Cruz, remains content with her career. "I can't see myself doing anything else," she said. "I'm just going to enjoy being a lieutenant for some time." Several other dedicated public safety officers were promoted to lieutenant last monthÑofficers Steve Drewniany, Doug Moretto, Mike Andrade and Shawn Ahearn. With more than 12 years of experience serving the department, Drewniany was a firefighter in Washington state and a paramedic at Mount St. Helens before he moved to Northern California in 1985, seeking a more urban law enforcement experience. For the past three years he has been involved in a major department project identifying the emergency needs of the Sunnyvale community and hopes to continue working to provide community members with a faster emergency medical services response. As far as his goals, Drewniany said he will be "very happy to be a lieutenant for awhile" and maybe move over to the operations side of the department later. For the past eight years, Ahearn has been one of the department's K9 officers. He and his partner, "Cetaan," have won many awards for outstanding performance and achievement as a K9 team. "I retired Cetaan in January and he is now home with me," Ahearn said. "He still does all that he is trained to do but is much more relaxed now." Ahearn, who has been with the department for almost 16 years, is now supervisor of the day shift crews. Moretto, a 15-year veteran of the department, started his law enforcement career with a two-year stint with the city of Atherton's police department. A SWAT team member for many years with Public Safety, Moretto has been a motorcycle traffic officer and acting supervisor. Currently Moretto supervises a patrol group, which is involved in providing police services to the community. "My role is to take care of my people so they can in turn take care of the citizens," Moretto said. While his focus in the past was mostly on extensive professional training, Moretto said he is looking at broadening his educational background in order to build his professional qualifications. Attending the University of Phoenix—widely known for its distance learning programs—is on the top of Moretto's list of considerations, while his ultimate goal is to obtain a master's degree in public administration. In his 15 years with Public Safety, Andrade has worked in robbery and homicide on the police side, as a fire-truck operator in the fire station and as a training officer for new recruits. Come January, Andrade is likely to move back to the police side of the department. Officers are moved back and forth between the two different areas of public safety to keep them in constant touch with their skills and training, he said. "My plan is to foster a more communicative environment within the department," Andrade said. He added that he would like to open the lines of communication within the department and encourage people to communicate more responsibly with one another. As a new retirement plan is handed down to the public safety officers, the department will be faced with a 30 percent reduction in its workforce in the next two years, with more senior officers leaving, Andrade said. Consequently, there will be more new recruits coming into the department. Besides the five promotions to lieutenant, there was one promotion to captain and 13 new hires last month. Public Safety currently has 35 officers in training. While there has been no additional hiring strictly because of the terrorist attacks, more than 100 officers have been hired just within the last three years, Pipkin said. "The hiring of new officers is done to replace those who have retired or who have had to leave the department for some reason," Pipkin said. "So we are basically hiring 40 percent of our workforce every year." |
Feedback, or idea for a Story for the Sun?
(Close this Window to go back to our home page.)
Copyright © SVCN, LLC. Maintained by GoGuys, Inc.