Glendale Police Chief Announces He’ll Resign

GLENDALE — In a surprise announcement, Glendale Police Chief James E. Anthony informed fellow officers and city staff on Tuesday that he intends to resign, effective Sept. 1, after five years in the position.

Anthony, 54, who entered police work at age 19 as a clerk-dispatcher in West Covina, said he is leaving his $127,000-a-year position to become a consultant, but he declined to give details about his new venture.

“Things are going very well here in Glendale, so I feel that this is the time to do it,” Anthony said. “It seems to me that some chiefs might stay a little too long. . . . If you wait until there are problems when you leave, then you’d be doing it under a cloud or maybe with bitterness.”

Anthony, whose department has a $28-million budget and a staff of 229 officers and 110 civilians, leaves at a time when the City Council is deliberating over how to fund a proposed $48-million police complex that includes new headquarters, parking facilities and a garage.

“The police complex is no doubt the gorilla [of city projects],” Anthony said. But he noted that he would be leaving with the council’s commitment, voiced last week, to build the complex because current facilities are too small and too old.

Under Anthony’s leadership, the Police Department implemented the so-called community oriented policing, or COPPS, program. He also oversaw the creation of the bicycle patrol, a partnership with Burbank to purchase patrol helicopters, the automation of police data, a youth boxing program and the creation of an organized crime unit.

Before becoming Glendale’s chief on Jan. 6, 1992, Anthony had held the same position at the Chino Police Department for 12 years.