Pleasanton - Most of the awards and celebrity photos that filled his office have been packed away.

After 34 years, Pleasanton police Chief Bill Eastman is stepping out of the thin blue line.

Relaxing on his backyard patio, Eastman scratching what has the makings of a distinguished gray beard, said he is ready to retire.

In January, after being hospitalized briefly months before with high blood pressure problems, he announced his plans to leave.  On Monday, Tracy Chief of Police Timothy P. Neal, 45, will take the helm at Pleasanton.

"It's nice to be a private citizen," Eastman said.  "Being a police chief is not my whole identity in life."

Even so, Eastman, 58, will leave behind a legacy when he walks out the station doors for the last time as the department's tough-talking commander.

While the chief's hard-nosed style may not have always been popular with some of his officers, his credo will likely remain ingrained in them: "If you don't give the streets away, you never have to take them back."

The city's low crime rate is a reflection of that philosophy.  Crime statistics show Pleasanton residents in 1998 were three times less likely to be a victim of crime than they were in 1980.

Eastman always has told his officers that a highly active and visible police force will dissuade the bad guys from plying their trade in the city.

He never hesitated or apologized about calling crooks "punks" and "idiots."

He even got fan mail when he lambasted former Oakland A's player Jose Canseco in 1990 for being a poor role model to kids.  At the time, the outfielder was accruing traffic tickets faster than home runs.

Eastman was a self-professed "benevolent autocrat" who demanded much from his officers during his 18-year reign.

He didn't compromise when it came to his core of deep-seated values - the one's posted throughout the department: be committed, meet community needs, look to the future, get involved and make things better.

"You can have a set of views but if you don't get them into where the rubber meets the road, it's over," Eastman said.  "Then you've got nothing."

He didn't get along with everyone and sometimes clashed with the police officers' association, but many who know him and worked with him say they respect him for what he has done for the city.

"I think he did a great job here," said Mark Senkle, who has been at the department 15 years.  "He took the city a long way.  Just look at the growth and the type of community it turned out to be."

The Pleasanton City Council hired Eastman as their top cop in 1981 out of Culver City Police Department, where he had been a captain.

Ken Mercer, Pleasanton's then-mayor, said he admires Eastman and that he was more than just a police chief - he was a citizen of the community.

"Bill brought the police department into the 20th century.  We were a small town back then,"  Mercer said. "Bill came in with a lot of education and great ideas."

In 1981, the police department sat in what is now the historical museum on Main Street - before the building got its expensive makeover.

"Pencils would roll off desks,"  Eastman said  "There were uneven floors.  There was a mass of wire in the basement."

The department since moved to its Bernal Avenue home and is on the leading edge of technology with computer-aided dispatch and records systems and even computers in patrol cars.

"(Technology) doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you don't have good people on the street,"  Eastman said.

Hiring quality people is his biggest accomplishment, he said.  They are the reason city streets are among the safest in the state, he said.

Born in St. Louis, Eastman is the son of a businessman and a grandson of a carpenter who did detail work on railroad sleeper cars.

As a young man, he once had a job delivering safes and later worked for Bank of America - a job he found "too structured" he said.

He decided to become a cop in 1966 after the Watts riots near his home.  He later earned degrees from Pepperdine University and the University of Southern California.

A former Marine and a hard-core Republican, he is the father of two daughters and grandfather of seven.  He has lived in Pleasanton for nearly 20 years.

He served on numerous law enforcement committees for former governors Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian.

He has been the president of The California Police Chiefs Association and the Alameda County Police Chiefs and Sheriff's Association, and has served as a state representative in the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Always an outspoken advocate of the death penalty and assault rifle legislation, his opinions have been published in textbooks and magazines, and he has appeared on numerous television programs.

Tri-Valley Herald - Sunday, August 1, 1999

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