Above: Outgoing Deputy Chief David Campbell and outgoing City Manager Rorie Watt stand with Campbell’s badge and ID on Friday. (Photo credit Jasz Garrett/KINY)
David Scott Campbell was born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska where he lived until age 17.
His family then moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where he graduated from Bartlett High School in 1985.
As a young adult, David held a variety of jobs while putting himself through college, even as an oil recovery technician following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in the summer of 1989.
He married his wife, Keni Lynn, in 1989 and they soon had Tyler and Cody.
He graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice. Later he went on to earn a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Alaska Southeast.
Campbell applied to a few police departments in Alaska after graduating college. In the early 90s, becoming a police officer was very competitive.
JPD had 110 candidates for 3 positions in 1995.
Campbell was selected as the number one candidate during the process and started his career with JPD on Apr. 1, 1995.
That summer Campbell moved his young family down to Juneau, driving down the Al-Can in a little Acura Integra with his wife, 3-year-old Tyler, and 1-year-old Cody.
Campbell shared what he is looking forward to about his retirement.
“For me personally, I’m looking forward to just relaxing and decompressing. I plan on taking the next three months off, and waking up without an alarm, and going to sleep without having to worry about being called out,” he said. “Eating a lot of good food and exercising, and enjoying Juneau for what it has to offer.”
He also looked ahead at the future of JPD as the police station’s next Police Chief is chosen between finalists Derek Bos and Krag Campbell.
“There are two very, very good candidates, I’m not really sure who’s it going to be. But I do know that the existing leadership structure with our lieutenants, with our public safety manager, and with our Chief Admin Officer, they are dedicated professionals,” he said. “They made my job as Deputy Chief easy. The department is in good hands regardless of who the Chief is. I just want the next Chief to be wildly successful for the department and for the city.”
Campbell temporarily served as interim Police Chief after Ed Mercer’s retirement on Jul. 31.
Below: Finalist for Police Chief and Special Operations Lieutenant for JPD Krag Campbell gives his thanks and goodbye to Deputy Chief David Campbell. (Photo credit Jasz Garrett/KINY)
He added it’s not his accreditations that are his proudest accomplishments, but the connections he has made with people in the community that led them on new, successful paths.
Below: Deputy Chief Campbell and City Manager Rorie Watt stand with Campbell’s shadowbox. (Photo credit Jasz Garrett/KINY)
Below: The full training room that poured into the hallway of JPD stands to clap for Deputy Chief Campbell’s departure. (Photo credit Jasz Garrett/KINY)
During his time at JPD:
• He completed field training early, and worked as a standalone officer for 3 months, then attended the 14th session of the Alaska Department of Public Safety Academy in Sitka, graduating with the distinction of Class Valedictorian.
• He earned an Advanced Police Officer Certificate from the Alaska Police Standards Council and became a certified APSC Instructor.
• He received the Academic Excellence Award for both the ILEA School of Police Supervision and the ILEA 49th Management College.
• He became a certified Polygraph Examiner.
• In 2016, Campbell graduated from the FBI National Academy, 264th session.
As a Patrol Officer, Campbell became a Field Training Officer, was a member of the Drug Unit and SEANET (the Southeast Alaska Narcotics Enforcement Team), and the Crisis Negotiations Team, eventually designated Team Leader.
At the Sergeant level, promoted in 2002:
• Campbell has supervised Patrol, Community Services, and Special Operations.
• As the first and only Special Operations Unit Sergeant, managed a unit comprised of three separate teams. The 12 employees supervised comprised the largest span of control ever managed by one sergeant.
• For 13 years he was JPD’s Public Information Officer.
• He was the team leader of the Crisis Negotiations Team.
• He coordinated JPD’s participation in the first several National Night Out events.
• Campbell coordinated JPD’s 4th of July Op orders for 7 years.
Promoted in 2012 to Lieutenant:
• Oversaw the Patrol division.
• Became JPD’s first Executive Lieutenant, performing tasks like preparation of the annual reports, oversight of training, and all internal affairs cases.
• Campbell was in charge of public outreach. One of his accomplishments in this area was the implementation of the community event “Coffee with a Cop.” He helped JPD establish a presence on social media by creating JPD’s Facebook page.
• Campbell took on a huge project for the department that involved converting all JPD rules, regulations, and policies from paper binders to electronic format with the use of a policy management software called PowerDMS.
In 2017, Campbell was promoted to Deputy Chief, a position which he has held for the past 6 years.
• In this role, he continued the PowerDMS project
• He played a key role in JPD becoming an accredited police agency once again in September 2021.
• He has overseen JPD’s fleet program, managing the acquisition and maintenance of all JPD vehicles. In addition to managing the challenge of trying to order new patrol vehicles during and after the pandemic, Campbell has also spent time reviewing the latest trend for the switch to electric police vehicles.
• As DC, Campbell represented JPD along with Chief Mercer at CBJ Assembly meetings and Alaska State Legislature committee hearings.
• He has maintained relationships with numerous special-interest groups in the community, presenting on topics including homelessness, bear nuisance issues, recruitment challenges, crime trends, and various other hot topics.
• He has served as the JPD liaison to several organizations, including Juneau Crime Line, the Local Emergency Preparedness Committee, Juneau Citizens of Patrol, the Child Advocacy Center’s Multi-Disciplinary Team, and the Mayor’s Taskforce on Crime.
In addition to his work at JPD, he made time for fun:
• He created and participated in the JPD Triathlon, an annual event that ran for about 10 years.
• He was an enthusiastic participant in the annual CBJ Halloween Costume Contest – making elaborate costumes like the Grim Reaper and the Predator. He coordinated themed group costumes like Lego characters and even helped out CBJ HR by playing “Ted Sadtler” for their Mattress Ranch theme.
• From 2013-2019, Campbell served on the UAS Alumni & Friends Association Board of Directors, 5 of those years as President. He and his fellow board members raised thousands of dollars for scholarships, most notably at their annual spring auction, with Campbell as auctioneer and emcee.
• He was also a member of the Juneau Rotary Club.
• For many years, Campbell has played Santa Claus for families of JPD employees — even during the pandemic, when Santa went on the road and brought Christmas to JPD families at their homes since gathering at the station was not possible.
SPECIAL RECOGNITIONS
• 1999 – He received a Commendation from the FBI for Exceptional Service in the Public Interest
• 2001 – Campbell was awarded a Lifesaving Medal for an incident where he successfully negotiated with a suicidal subject who was threatening to jump from the roof of a downtown apartment building.
• 2004 – Campbell was issued the STAR Award by the Juneau Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, after stopping an intoxicated driver who had driven onto the 4th of July Parade grounds in Douglas.
• 2010 – He was awarded an Outstanding Police Service Medal for responding as the Crisis Negotiations Team Leader to a neighboring community to assist after 2 officers had been killed in the line of duty.
• 2012 – Campbell received another Outstanding Police Service Medal for serving as Incident Commander during an incident with a barricaded subject who was shooting at responding officers.