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Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing, who has spent his career with the department in southern Santa Clara County, is making the move north to take the reins as the new chief of the Pleasanton Police Department starting next month, city officials announced Tuesday.
Swing, who demonstrated more than 25 years of law enforcement and leadership experience, rose to the top in “a highly competitive selection and recruitment process” to become the permanent successor to retired police chief David Spiller, according to Pleasanton city officials.
“I am honored and thrilled to be entrusted with this amazing opportunity,” Swing said in a statement.
“I look forward to getting to know the community and the dedicated women and men of the Pleasanton Police Department — working together to continue and enhance the culture of proactive community policing and exceptional service provided to our residents and guests,” he added.
Pleasanton City Manager Nelson Fialho announced the hiring decision on Tuesday morning, saying Swing stood out because of a strong record of budget management, community engagement, personnel development and pioneering use of new law enforcement technology to meet community needs.
“Chief Swing’s public administration background, and his experience in implementing innovative technology solutions, coupled with his strong aptitude in building lasting relationships, will advance our police department and position our community well into the future,” Fialho said in a statement.
“I’m confident that he will assimilate well into our community and the police department organization,” the city manager added.
Swing’s first day on the job will be April 13.
He will take the reins from Craig Eicher, an eight-year Pleasanton police captain who has served as the department’s interim police chief since Nov. 15 — once Spiller retired after eight-plus years at the helm.
Swing has worked his entire law enforcement career in Morgan Hill, a city smaller than Pleasanton in Santa Clara County south of San Jose.
He started with the Morgan Hill Police Department as a reserve police officer in 1995, and he then climbed the ranks from sworn police officer to corporal to sergeant to commander and ultimately to chief in 2011.
During his tenure as chief, Swing also served as president of the California Police Chiefs Association, where he “actively engaged state legislators and successfully influenced legislation impacting California law enforcement agencies,” Pleasanton officials said.
Swing earned a Bachelor of Arts and master’s degree in public administration from San Jose State University, and he is a graduate of the POST Command College, a state program for law enforcement leaders.
Additionally, he holds a certification as a POST Executive and is a regular instructor at the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, teaching a management course focusing on budget, strategic planning and succession planning.
Welcome to the city of sham schools, the land of fake universities and visa scams where in spite of the State and Fed governments continually shutting them down – e.g. the LambdaSchool https://lambdaschool.com/about they for some odd reason continue to grow and proliferate in this town. Even after the State and Feds shut them down.
Why? No one seems to know. Perhaps the new police chief will finally put a stop to this criminal activity.
Also, I wonder why the Pleasanton Weekly continues to completely ignore the scam schools in Pleasanton even when they are operating on a model of indentured servitude — https://insights.dice.com/2019/10/02/lambda-school-violation-law/
Obviously the new police chief has his work cut out for him including getting to the bottom to why the City of Pleasanton keeps issuing businesses licenses to scam operations such as this.
If you ask any MORGAN Hill Officer, they are glad to see him leave. MHPD is currently in a staffing crisis because of poor leadership. Many of the MHPD officers lateraled to a different agency or they are in the process to leave MHPD. Swing also hired a So Cal Captain who never even drove through MH before being hired. So Cal policing is VERY different from a farm-town police agency. Have fun with him Pleasanton. All smoke and mirrors. I foresee a no-confidence vote very soon from your officers.
We can’t promote/hire within the department?
We had the perfect candidate within the department, Capt Eicher has 30 years with the department, lives in Pleasanton, completely involved within the community… helps with Special Olympics, Widner World Christmas, and even chairman of the board of Hope Hospice and on the Community of Character board. Such a great guy and so qualified, I am really disappointed, and there are many upset people in this community. Chief Swing may be a good guy, hope so… but he’s still an outsider that has never participated in our community.
Ken sorry you’re captain wasn’t selected. Also, for them to hire an external candidate raises the question if PPD is doing a good job of training and mentoring their employees. You also need to look at PPDs succession planning, or lack of.
Make no mistake. Swing is all about himself and his resume. He tried to be the City Manager of MH but wasn’t selected. MHPD are losing officers in record numbers. He promoted Captain Shane Palagrove, who has little to no experience and is not respected as a leader by his troops. PPD have fun with yesterday’s garbage in Swing.
Even the most basic background check will show that he’s had three votes of no confidence while at Morgan Hill PD. And yet he beat every internal applicant??? That’s a problem.
Did Eicher want the job? I don’t know either way, and didn’t see the applicant list. It seems odd he wouldn’t have been hired if he wanted the position. He is an outstanding individual.
That said, sometimes folks don’t want to be the top boss. I’ve seen it before from really good people.
Does anyone here know?
I’ve heard the same thing about Swing. Very small agency. Captain Eicher and Captain Cox, while both having different styles, would have been good chiefs. Eicher is the senior Captain and has years of command experience. Cox has the respect of the troops, has outside agency experience and has truly shown his leadership ability as he has risen the ranks. He is a cops cop. PPD lacks some modern equipment, offers zero lateral incentives and is definitely not the best paid. I also don’t think all the cops there are completely happy. Chief Swing will bring the department in one of two directions, although I have my bet of which one it will be, time will tell.
Swing is all about #1. He was mentored by another chief with the same attitude. I’ll give you a clue, about his mentor….he retired from San Jose and went to a small town agency and destroyed it! PPD will have its share of issues with a guy like this. Good luck! I’ll pray for you guys! Hope the POA legal fund is healthy.
Joe Snuffy, SJ has produced several of those… you talking about MM? I bet the Morgan Hill guys gave him good recommendations to get rid of him. Smart for them, bad for Ptown.
This is likely another example of PERS spiking. NO doubt there was an internal candidate would have been just as capable. We all pay for moves like this.
I believe Captain Craig Eicher would have been an excellent police chief for Pleasanton. It’s too bad they felt the need to hire from the outside.
Paula J
Word has it this was a Nelson pic w/very little input from anyone else.
So unbelievably disappointing that the city manager chose a candidate outside of our community. Captain Craig Eicher has given his heart and soul to the city of Pleasanton for the past 30 years and has worked his way up the ranks and demonstrates an excellent track record of leadership. Dear City Manager, as a concerned citizen I truly do not understand your rationale for hiring an outsider that is not a member of our community when we have a very strong internal candidate.
I don’t think Fialho cares about the PD. Leadership starts at the top and I doubt he really listened to the rank and file or the POA to get their input. Both Captain’s were highly qualified and had the respect of the officers. I know Cox and Eicher could have pulled the department in a direction that would enhance morale and make it a better place to work. If Swing is as bad as he is made to sound, it will have the same result as what is reported to be happening at MHPD with the turnover. With zero recruitment or retention incentives, low pay (as comparable to similar sized agencies in the bay area), limited career growth opportunities and antiquated policies (no facial hair, no visible tattoos, no external vests, no take home cars, no shift differential, etc), why would someone chose to stay with Fialho’s installation of a poor leader to add on top of everything else? Too bad we will never know Fialho’s reasoning behind this. Time will tell and its unfortunate the department and citizenry of Pleasanton will be the ones that suffer.
I wonder if all these people singing the praises of people who didn’t get the job have any idea what it takes to be a successful police chief. Being a nice guy or involved in a bunch of random community events does not a police chief make.
I’m confident the city council and city manager put a lot of thought into this decision and selected the person they believed would best fill the role. Give the poor guy a chance.
Officers are already unhappy with the department so hopefully this chief doesn’t add to the morale problem.
If Swing is as bad as he is made to sound, it will have the same result as what is reported to be happening at MHPD with the turnover. With zero recruitment or retention incentives, low pay (as comparable to similar sized agencies in the bay area), limited career growth opportunities and antiquated policies (no facial hair, no visible tattoos, no external vests, no take home cars, no shift differential, etc), why would someone chose to stay with Fialho’s installation of a poor leader to add on top of everything else?https://sportegan.com/
Cox has the respect of the troops, has outside agency experience and has truly shown his leadership ability as he has risen the ranks.
rhe Interview panel consisted of community stakeholders. I trust their judgment and appreciate their service.