New police chief announced

Douglas Diamond was recently named the new police chief of West Jordan. The 52-year-old Diamond comes most recently from Rancho Cordova, Calif., a city with a population of 65,000 in the Sacramento area, where he also served as police chief.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity to be the police chief of West Jordan,” Diamond said.

The opportunity will bring him closer to his son and daughter-in-law, who he’s anxious to live near.

“But I’m also anxious to take the lead in West Jordan,” Diamond said. “It’s a good police department and a good city. And I’m really looking forward to being there. I can’t wait to start.”

Set to start in January, Diamond plans to set up several meetings so the residents, department members and business leaders can get to know him, and he can get to know them in return.

Receiving a degree in justice administration from Brigham Young University and graduating from the FBI National Academy, Diamond brings with him a wealth of experience, including 26 years in law enforcement.

Diamond began his sworn law enforcement career in Salida, Colo., a small town in the middle of the state, where he worked at an agency with 11 officers for six years.

It was then on to the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department, where he worked his way up through various assignments, including corrections, contract cities, working at the airport as an assistance commander, commanding in property evidence, computer networks in the technical services division and other administrative jobs.

“So a pretty wide variety of experiences, plus the general patrol experiences and those types of things,” Diamond said.

Once he comes on board, he knows some changes will have to be made, including creating an executive staff.

“So that will probably one of the first things I’ll be looking at -- getting a captain or commander-level person in there,” Diamond said.

They may need to make some organizational changes to get the department back to where it was two or three years ago, when the department had two captain positions, he said.

“Then one retired and they didn’t backfill behind that,” Diamond said. “And I’m pretty sure we’ll need at least two of those type positions there. How we get to that point--I’m not sure yet.”