On Friday, January 28, 2011, the San Francisco Police Department lost a civilian member that, unfortunately, most of our members never had the honor of meeting but have been or will be touched by his vision of the BRICC, the Bay Area Regional Information and Crime Center.
Lance Heivilin, the director of the BRICC (formally the Operations Center), lost his courageous battle with cancer and passed away at home. Lance was much more than an 'outsider' or hired gun brought in by former Chief Gascón. Lance was a man of extreme faith, a devoted family man, a retired ‘working’ cop, a visionary and a true friend to many. Lance, who had just turned 40 in December, is survived by the love of his life Jennae, two beautiful kids, Keegan, 7, and Samantha, 4, his father Jerry, and his brothers Bryan and Myles, who is a cop in Colorado.
Lance was a 10-8 cop in Mesa when a serious back injury and surgery forced him off of the streets. Unable to physically continue doing the job of an active cop, Lance used his immense knowledge and infectious enthusiasm to take the Fusion center in Mesa Arizona to a new level as well as begin a consulting company called Fusion Center Concepts. Lance became a recognized expert of information sharing functions on a regional law enforcement basis. The concept of fusion centers across the country finally made it to San Francisco when then Chief George Gascón talked Lance into coming here to start our own fusion center now called the BRICC.
Lance leaves a department that was sorely in need of his vision, to provide our members the information resources they needed to work smarter and to, as Lance would say, "put the bad guys behind bars". His vision of the BRICC is becoming a reality as we speak. Lance was brilliant and full of life and his vision was for the BRICC to become the North Star or guiding light of our improved way in which we conduct business in our Department.
Lance Heivilin had so much energy and his enthusiasm for helping working cops get everything they needed to do their job was infectious. He was always thinking of ways we could do things better with the resources we had. The new BRICC at DeHaro Street will be a state of the art facility that we all can be proud of.
How often do we see a cop show on television and say 'we should have that kind of access to that information'? This will become a reality due to Lance’s vision. Gone are the days when you would call up Operations and only feed them information. The BRICC will provide much more service to our members and the citizens than just being a place to call, make a notification and fill in the blanks in a report. The BRICC will become the hub of the SFPD as patrol and investigations are the spokes wheel. Knowing Lance and his continual drive for doing things better, he would be thrilled to see the new center but would already be thinking of ways to improve and expand the BRICC’s ability to help the working cops.
For those of us in the SFPD who had the honor of knowing Lance, Arizona's loss was clearly San Francisco's gain. For those members who never were able to meet Lance, trust me when I tell you that his vision of BRICC will make us a better police department as we work smarter to “put the bad guys behind bars”.
Thank you to the many SFPD members who donated time to Lance during his battle with this horrible disease. Thank you also to the POA and Jason Cherniss (I apologize if I left anyone out) for holding the fund raiser event for the Heivilin family. Lance, his family and his many friends were truly touched and extremely grateful by the huge financial support provided by our members despite his short stay with the SFPD. Thank you Rob, Kevin, Todd, Vito, Johnny, Sean and Mike for all of the stories about Lance from the Mesa days Lance was truly blessed to have you all as his shield as well as he was there for you too back in the day.
Lance, thank you for providing the SFPD with the BRICC and for the many stories we can share in your memory. You will be missed by so many and your legacy of the BRICC will live on.
I am honored to have had the opportunity to call you my friend for you have gone way too soon.
The below writing is a gift to all police officers from Lance Heivilin. He wrote it in 2001 as a member of the Mesa PD in honor of the partners he worked with on the Mesa PD SCAT team (Street Crimes Apprehension Team). I must apologize to female police officers as this was written long before Lance came to the politically correct San Francisco Police Department.
The Power of Unity
There comes a time in a man’s life, when he finds himself drawn together with other men. Men, who share the same ideals, have the same vision. When they come together something happens which changes their lives and destinies forever. They find that unity that comes once in a life, stare together into the abyss, and realize they have an opportunity to truly change the world. They realize that together they are able to do things that no one person can do on their own. They believe that good can and will conquer evil. They work in harmony fighting for righteousness, honor dignity and justice for those who cannot fend for themselves. With each other as their shield they can reach beyond their own mortality, defy all odds and do what most people deem as impossible. The strength to do this was bore out of the dreams of many working in concert, not the ideal of one man forced on the will of others.
These dreams became a reality and we did evoke change through our strength, conviction and perseverance. Never forget that. Never forget the power of unity. You just don’t know when you may be yet again drawn together with other men and find yourself looking into the abyss.
Lance Heivilin
July 20, 2001
