[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 13, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E302-E303]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN RECOGNITION OF MARK O'CONNOR

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JACKIE SPEIER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 13, 2019

  Ms. SPEIER. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Hillsborough Police Chief 
Mark O'Connor upon the occasion of his retirement after a total of 33 
years in law enforcement, 32 of those years with the Town of 
Hillsborough. Chief O'Connor is an uncommon law enforcement 
professional, and the residents of Hillsborough have been 
extraordinarily lucky to have his services for over three decades.
  Hillsborough is a town of 11,500 persons nestled in the hills of the 
San Francisco Peninsula. Mark O'Connor joined the police department of 
this beautiful town in 1986 after serving for a year in the Santa Clara 
County Sheriff's Office. He began as a Police Officer and then served 
as Canine Officer, Motorcycle Officer, Field Training Officer, Police 
Corporal, Press Information Officer, Patrol Sergeant, Administrative 
Captain, Patrol Captain and, finally, as the Chief of Police. However, 
Mark is a highly talented person, and for a while the town also tapped 
him to be Public Works Director. Apparently, he enjoyed catching 
burglars more than fixing broken sewer mains, so that stint was 
relatively short-lived.
  Chief O'Connor served on a committee of the San Mateo County Police 
Chiefs' and Sheriffs Association working on technology issues and was 
responsible for upgrading Hillsborough's department to take advantage 
of computers in patrol cars, officer body cameras, and Computer Aided 
Dispatch equipment, among many innovations. During Mark's time in 
charge, Hillsborough residents were protected by the latest technology 
available.
  As an institutional source of ``lessons learned'' for the department, 
Mark excels. For example, he once pointed out that making it easier to 
navigate a community isn't necessarily good for public safety. Among 
its many features, Hillsborough is a hard place to navigate at night 
without a lot of experience. Many pizzas have gone cold in the hills of 
Hillsborough. Burglars would also occasionally get lost. They would 
then meander repeatedly through the town seeking frantically to escape. 
The police would notice, and the thieves would become future candidates 
to make public endorsements on behalf of the Google Maps app for smart 
phones--after they were released from jail and subject to any 
applicable terms of probation. This story illustrates Mark's wisdom 
from years of on-the-ground experience. He is a walking library of such 
lessons.
  Mark O'Connor has many obvious skills. He is respected by his staff 
because he is authentic. He mentors others with ease. He is smart

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and has what the military calls ``command presence.'' My office works 
regularly with him on security issues that impact my office and the 
broader community. He is a rock-solid source of advice, even outside 
his formal job duties.
  For example, in 2010, a 30-inch high pressure natural gas 
transmission pipeline operated by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company 
exploded in San Bruno, north of Hillsborough, killing eight persons and 
injuring dozens more. Mark O'Connor is a master welder. Through the 
months after the explosion, he lent his judgments to my staff and to 
federal and state officials as they sought the cause of the rupture. He 
also noticed the vulnerability of Hillsborough and other cities to a 
similar disaster. In part because of his recommendations to me and to 
others, new pipes have been installed. Thousands have been removed from 
the path of possible harm, in part due to the insights lent by Chief 
Mark O'Connor.
  It is Chief O'Connor's integrity, grit, and determination to be of 
service to all law-abiding residents that has been the secret to his 
success. It's hard to imagine a man with such an active mind sitting 
still. Maybe, he'll write a book about his years in law enforcement. 
Hillsborough is visited regularly by Presidents, Ambassadors and other 
global leaders. Mark's career-based police thriller might be entitled, 
``I Saw The President--But He Never Saw Me.'' It's likely that many 
citizens and luminaries never saw Mark O'Connor, but we know that he 
had their backs all along their way through the community. This, in the 
end, is the highest mark of police service in any town--no flash, just 
skill and professionalism. That's Mark O'Connor, the retiring Chief of 
Police of Hillsborough, California.

                          ____________________