City names Anthony Treviño as interim police chief

Deputy Chief Anthony Treviño speaks during a press conference after being named interim San Antonio police chief effective in January on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. City manager Sheryl Scully, middle, and current police chief William McManus, left, listen. less Deputy Chief Anthony Treviño speaks during a press conference after being named interim San Antonio police chief effective in January on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. City manager Sheryl Scully, middle, and current ... more Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Billy Calzada, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close City names Anthony Treviño as interim police chief 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — City officials on Friday appointed Deputy Police Chief Anthony Treviño as the interim police chief who will replace William McManus when he leaves the department at the end of the year.

McManus, who has led the San Antonio Police Department since 2006, accepted a position in July with CPS Energy to head up the utility's security operations. He will depart at the end of December.

Treviño, who previously served as McManus' chief of staff, will officially begin as interim chief on Jan. 1 after City Council confirms the appointment at their Thursday meeting.

Treviño will serve until the city names a permanent replacement, likely after the May 9 mayoral election.

"I have some large shoes to fill," Treviño said at a Friday press conference. "Even though it's an interim role, I do not plan to sit on my hands."

City Manager Sheryl Sculley said the city will proceed with plans to "launch a local and nationwide search" for a permanent replacement in January.

Treviño said he plans on throwing his name in for consideration for the permanent position.

"I've got the utmost confidence in his abilities," McManus said.

The deputy chief steps in at a time of strain between top city officials and the police and fire unions over health care costs for uniformed personnel that led Mayor Ivy Taylor to call for a "holiday truce" in December.

The city recently sued the San Antonio Police Officers Association, which calls the expired contract's 10-year evergreen caluse unconstitutional. The association, in turn, has aired television and radio ads attacking Sculley and calling for her resignation.

"I've been on the department for over 21 years and so this isn't the first contract that I've been through," Treviño said at the press conference. "And, really, it's a business process between the city and the association to work out the details of the agreement."

Treviño also enters the position during a time of increased national attention on officer-related killings following the Nov. 24 decision by a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., to not indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager.

More than a week later, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to bring charges against a white New York police officer who put an unarmed black man in a chokehold that a medical examiner said led to the man's death on July 17.

Treviño acknowledged the timing of his arrival but said the San Antonio Police Department is continuing an emphasis on community engagement "to our line level officers all the way up throughout the organization."

"It's something that every officer needs to be concerned with because those individual relationships that we have with members of the community are what prevent a Ferguson-type situation," Treviño said.

Treviño added, "It's not a situational thing; it's something that we need to constantly work on as an organization."

The department began a pilot program in March that equipped 150 patrol officers with body cameras.

In September, McManus said wearing the cameras is "probably in the best interest of every officer" and said that the devices may influence behavior on both sides of the camera.

But, on Oct. 1, McManus told the City Council's Public Safety Committee that the department was not ready to implement the program.

Treviño said Friday he "would prefer to reserve comment" until City Council is briefed on the pilot program Dec. 10, but said he thinks the devices could be helpful.

According to his biography on the city’s website, Treviño joined SAPD in 1993 as a patrol officer after graduating from the police academy.

He earned an undergraduate degree in criminal justice from Wayland Baptist University and went on to obtain a master’s degree in public administration from American Military University.

He also retired from the Air Force Reserves as a Chief Master Sergeant, according to the city’s website.

In 2012, Treviño asked the state legislature to pass a bill, which ultimately failed, that would have allowed permanent sobriety checkpoints in Texas.

“We really do need to make a cultural change in the state of Texas when it comes to driving under the influence of alcohol,” he told the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee at a hearing.

Also in 2012, he threw out the first pitch at a baseball game where the San Antonio Missions took on the Frisco Roughriders.

At his pinning ceremony in 2011 where he was promoted to captain, he jokingly grimaced as his wife, Cynthia, secured his new badge.

He’s served SAPD in the robbery unit, as a supervisor of the patrol unit, in internal affairs and homicide.

McManus, a Philadelphia native, started his law enforcement career in 1975 as a patrol officer with the Washington D.C. force when he was in his early 20s, and stayed there working through the ranks, and eventually was promoted to assistant chief.

In 2001 he was named chief of the Dayton, Ohio, police department and two years later took over as chief of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Villanova and Johns Hopkins graduate has served San Antonio as chief for more than eight years, overseeing more than 2,000 sworn officers.

McManus, a married father of three, will remain in San Antonio after he leaves office, taking over as senior director of security at CPS Energy.

jfechter@mysa.com

Twitter: @JFreports