Betty Kelepecz
Chief of Police (Ret.)
President, Public Safety Consulting, Inc.
Retired Chief Kelepecz is a distinguished law enforcement leader with over 25 years of public safety experience. Since 2006, she has been the President of Public Safety Consulting, Inc., a WBE Certified corporation that provides consulting, subject matter expertise and legal services in the government environment with emphasis on law enforcement and fire departments. Her consulting services also include cross-agency/department management for various projects and public entity workplace investigations. From October 2007 to March 2008, she was employed as the lab director at Crime Scene Technologies, a private forensic DNA lab in San Diego, California where she was responsible for managing the daily laboratory operations of the American Society of Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD) accredited lab.
Prior to that she was the Senior Vice President, Integrated Law Enforcement and Maritime Security Solutions at San Diego based Crossflo Systems, Inc., a software company that provides data sharing solutions to government agencies. At Crossflo Systems, Chief Kelepecz was responsible for subject matter expertise in law enforcement technology, business development, cross-department and agency management and other personal services in the justice and public safety information-sharing environment.
Betty Kelepecz was appointed as Chief of Police for the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department in July 2003. As the Chief, she had overall responsibility for personnel and operations of the San Diego Harbor Police Department. The Department’s 144 sworn officers and 29 civilian personnel provide law enforcement, marine firefighting and homeland security services to San Diego Bay, San Diego International Airport and the tidelands within the Port of San Diego’s jurisdiction. She played a key role in Homeland Security and Port/Seaport Security and worked closely with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the United States Coast Guard (U.S.C.G.) and the United States Navy.
During her tenure as Chief she was instrumental in the establishment of the San Diego Joint Harbor Operations Center (JHOC), a nationally recognized model for collaborative federal, state and local resource and information sharing. Moreover, she championed the San Diego Regional Information Sharing and Analysis (RISA) initiative, a multi-jurisdictional data-sharing project designed to detect, prevent and deter terrorism in and around the San Diego Bay. She also served as the Vice Chair of the U.S.C.G. San Diego Area Maritime Security Committee (AMSC) and as the Port of San Diego Harbor Master.
From 1980 through 2003, Retired Chief Kelepecz worked her way up through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to the position of Commander with the LAPD, from which she retired. She held several top executive leadership and command level positions within the LAPD, including; Commander in charge of the Community Policing Group, Operations-West Bureau, Personnel Group and the Risk Management Group. As a Police Captain, she held the positions of Commanding Officer of Scientific Investigation Division (the crime lab) and various traffic and patrol divisions.
During her career in law enforcement, Chief Kelepecz developed considerable expertise and experience in the risk management field. As the Commander in charge of LAPD’s Risk Management Group from 2001-2003, she was responsible for the investigation of and response to all civil litigation that arose out of the Department. Co-located in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office as the LAPD’s primary subject matter expert, she was responsible for all the policy review and adjudications on Department uses of force, pursuits, on-duty traffic collisions and the Risk Management Advisory Committee and process. She was also responsible for all of the litigation discovery and the “Pitchess Motion” unit. In 2003, she was the author of the revised LAPD Use of Force and Pursuit policies.
Retired Chief Kelepecz has been a pioneer in the area of women in command positions in law enforcement and is a charter member and past president of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives (NAWLEE). She graduated from the Senior Management Institute for Police (SMIP), the National Academy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the FBI’s Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (LEEDS). In addition, she holds a Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern University School of Law at Los Angeles; and is currently licensed to practice law by the California Bar. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Southern California and worked as a microbiologist prior to entering law enforcement as a police officer.
In 2004, NAWLEE named then Chief Kelepecz as the recipient of the 2nd Annual National Woman Law Enforcement Executive of the Year award. She is also a recipient of the prestigious Gary P. Hayes Award for Law Enforcement Leadership from the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) and featured in the textbook, TOP COPS: Profiles of Women in Command, authored by Marion E. Gold (1999), Brittany Publications.
Retired Chief Kelepecz is involved in numerous industry and law enforcement organizations and committees. She is a Director on the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute’s Board of Directors and among others, the Intergovernmental Relations Committee of the IJIS Institute and the Homeland Security and Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Committees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).