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Like father, like son
Chiefs rise to top job in their fathers’ departments
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Sausalito Police Chiefs Ed Kreins (1969) and son, Joseph Kreins; Benecia Police Chiefs Pierre Bidou and son, Andrew Bidou
When Joseph Kreins arrived at the Sausalito Police
Department every day during his tenure as police
chief from July 2001 to December 2004, he’d glance
at the wall and say two words: “Hello, Dad.”
The smiling face of his father, Edward, is among
the former police chiefs whose portraits hang in the
station’s lobby.
The Kreins made history as the state’s first father-andson team of police chiefs of the same city. Recently, a
second father-son duo achieved the same distinction
when Andrew Bidou became police chief of Benicia
in January 2011. Bidou’s father, Pierre, served as
police chief of Benicia for 16 years before leaving
the department in 1992 to go into city politics and to
pursue other ventures.
The four men say being police chiefs of the same
cities is a source of pride. They also say that because
law enforcement has changed so much over the last
few decades, their jobs have little in common beyond
the title. “This is not my father’s world,” says Joe
Kreins, 55, now interim police chief of Vallejo.
And, perhaps even more surprisingly, both sons say
their fathers didn’t push them into policing.
“If you would have told me a few years ago that I’d
be police chief of Benicia, I would have laughed,”
says Andrew Bidou. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
Pierre Bidou joined the Benicia PD as a patrol officer
in 1964 and worked his way up to chief of police
in 1976. At that time, Andrew, the youngest of six
children, was just 7 years old.
While his father was establishing a career that
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included investigating two deaths that eventually were
identified as the first of seven confirmed victims of the
Zodiac Killer, who struck in 1968 and 1969, Andrew
was enjoying sports and going to school. He wasn’t
focused on following in his father’s footsteps.
“What Andrew did, he did on his own,” says Pierre
Bidou, who lives in Benicia and meets his son every
week for dinner. “He’s a dedicated professional, a
caring young man, and he’s very smart. I’m very proud
of him, and am very proud of what he’s done.”
Edward S. Kreins also served as police chief of
Pleasant Hill and Beverly Hills, where he later served
as city manager. Ed, who now lives in Nipomo, retired
in 1990 but has remained active in law enforcementconsulting roles for cities and school districts.
Joe Kreins says he planned to go into marketing. But
when he was 23, and working at a bowling alley, he
visited Sausalito PD to say hello to friends he met
through his father --- and was encouraged to fill out
an application. And thus launched a 32-year career
that included 16 years with the Concord PD before
he became police chief of Sausalito in 2001. It was a
homecoming for Kreins, who was a police officer in
Sausalito from 1980 to 1985.
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Both Joe Kreins and his father served roughly threeyear terms as top cops of the same law enforcement
agency. “I thought it was fantastic,” Ed Kreins says. “I
was very proud of him, and told him not to criticize
my old policies too much.”
Joe Kreins sometimes consults his father. “He’s always
been a great mentor and someone there to listen to
and to bounce ideas off of,” he said. •
(714) 446-1400
Jones & Mayer Attorneys at Law
Serving California’s Police
Chiefs since 1992
1127 11th St Suite 523
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 447-3820
Email: [email protected]
Fall 2012 | 35
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11/8/12 11:31:26 PM