City Police Name Angela DeSarro Lieutenant, First Woman at Rank Here

Angela DeSarro, a former second-grade teacher and 10-year veteran of the La Mesa Police Department, has been promoted to lieutenant, Police Chief Ed Aceves announced Wednesday.

DeSarro thus became the highest-ranking member of the department in the city’s 100-year history.

She was one of two women recently promoted in rank, said La Mesa police. The other was Katy Lynch, named a sergeant, along with Greg Runge.

The other new lieutenant is Ray Sweeney, who came to the department in February 2001—two months before DeSarro. Sweeney has spent his entire career with La Mesa PD while also serving in the Army National Guard.

Of DeSarro, the La Mesa police say: “During her career, she has worked as a patrol officer, Taser instructor, a field training officer and … was on the department’s Special Enforcement Detail team.”

DeSarro also worked in the department’s Investigations Unit both as a detective and as a sergeant. She is a member of the peer support team as well as the BeSTOW team.  With her promotion, DeSarro has been appointed as the Department’s wellness coordinator, overseeing both peer support and BeSTOW, an FBI project that stands for Beyond Survival, Towards Officer Wellness.

DeSarro has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Cal State San Bernardino and is working on a master’s degree in criminal justice, police say.

Before starting her law enforcement career, she was a second-grade teacher for two years. 

“DeSarro has been a sergeant for three years and when promoted to the rank of lieutenant she has the distinction of being the first female lieutenant in the 100-year history of La Mesa Police Department,” Aceves said. 

The Police Department says it will hold a promotion ceremony at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 19 at the Community Room in the new police station.

In November, Aceves promoted David Bond and Dan Willis to the rank of captain.  Bond and Willis have been with La Mesa police since the start of their police careers.

La Mesa police also said in a statement:

Lieutenant Sweeney has been with the La Mesa Police Department since February 1, 2001. During his career he has worked as a patrol officer, Range Master, Defensive Tactics instructor, Taser instructor, Master Officer, Special Response Team Leader, Detective and Narcotic Task Force Officer.

He is the Team Leader of the Department’s BeSTOW Team. With his promotion Lt. Sweeney has been appointed as the Department’s Traffic Lieutenant and the BeSTOW Coordinator.

Lt. Sweeney in addition to his duties at the La Mesa Police Department has served with the Army National Guard for the last 27 years. He currently holds the rank of Sergeant Major and has been deployed overseas twice. Prior to starting his career, he was active duty Army and worked with the Counter Narcotics Team.

Greg Runge joined the La Mesa Police Department in October 2000 and began his career assigned to the Patrol Division.  In February 2004, he applied for and was selected to become a Detective in the Investigations Unit. 

Throughout his nearly 5 years as a Detective, Sgt. Runge worked various assignments including Child Abuse, Financial Crimes, Robbery, and Homicide. In September 2008, he was selected as the La Mesa Police Department’s representative on the San Diego Regional Narcotic Task Force, a DEA task force comprised of investigators and agents from both local and federal agencies.  Greg served at the task force until his promotion to Sergeant in December 2011.

In addition to his assigned duties, Sgt. Runge serves on the department Peer Support and BeSTOW teams, is a course instructor, and has presented at the California Peer Support Association’s annual conference on financial issues. 

Sgt. Runge earned a law degree from the University of San Diego in May 2008 and passed the California State Bar later that same year.

Sergeant Lynch began her career with La Mesa police in 2005 and was assigned as a patrol officer upon completing academy.

As a patrol officer, Lynch became involved in our Kidzwatch Program and has been a Kidzwatch instructor for six years. From patrol, she was selected for our Special Enforcement Detail team and was an SED officer for 3 years. While on SED, Sergeant Lynch became a member of our Honor Guard team.

In 2009, Sergeant Lynch was selected to be a detective. She first worked as a burglary detective and was selected as our Officer of the Year for 2010.

As a detective,  Lynch worked a variety of complex and high profile cases in 2011, including homicide and our officer involved shooting investigation. During the last year Sergeant Lynch has also worked to complete her master’s degree and will graduate on Jan. 23.