Lt. William Sullivan Named Assistant Chief Of Police

Longtime Palm Desert resident Lt. William Sullivan has been named the assistant chief of police for Palm Desert.

Sullivan, who has lived in the city for 27 years with his wife Silvia and two daughters, takes the place of Capt. Andrew Shouse, who has been transferred to Blythe.

The Palm Desert City Council will welcome Sullivan and honor Shouse at its regular council meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Palm Desert contracts with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for its policing services.

The lieutenant was previously the assistant chief of police for nearby Indian Wells since April 2011. He has also been worked for the last has seven years as an criminal justice adjunct professor at College of the Desert and Riverside City College.

With more than 28 years of law enforcement experience, Sullivan started his career as a reserve officer for the city of Beaumont.

In 1984, he was hired as a full time police officer with the Indio Police Department, where he worked for four years as a patrol officer and six years in the I.P.D. Detective Bureau.

In 1994, he left the Indio Police Department to take a sergeant’s position at the Coachella Police Department where he served in the Patrol Division. 

He left in 1998 when the Coachella Police Department began contracting with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department for its policing services. He became a deputy sheriff and was assigned to the Palm Desert Station.

In 2000, he was promoted to senior deputy and in 2002 he was promoted to sergeant and re-assigned to the Indio Sheriff’s Station. 

In 2006, he was promoted to lieutenant and transferred to supervise the Indio and Colorado River Station Jails. In 2009, he was transferred to the Sheriff’s Special Investigations Bureau and in 2010 he returned to the Palm Desert Station.