Contributor of the Month May 2008
Jeff Frazier
Career Background:
Jeff was always clear that he wanted to work in the public sector. After earning his undergraduate degree in sociology and marketing at the University of the Pacific in California, he was impressed by the career record and charisma of visionary police chief Bill Eastman and decided to enter into municipal policing. During his seven year tenure, he worked as a policeman in the San Francisco bay area, doing every kind of role from special weapons and tactics team (SWAT), police detective, police sergeant, watch commander to more mundane tasks such as working on the budget. He was approached twice to join the FBI and eventually said yes, moving to Washington for a year of training before returning to California as an FBI special agent in Los Angeles. There he worked on a range of issues including drug interdiction between South and North America and major crimes such as the Cal Poly murders. Eventually a chance encounter with a Cisco VP led to him being recruited into Cisco. In 2006, he joined Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group public sector team, focused on public safety and security. Throughout his policing career, Jeff took an interest in technology, joining the high tech crime investigators association as a police officer and working on some internet-related crime while at the FBI. He completed graduate school while a detective and after some further studies at Boston University’s Police Executive Research Forum is now a Senior Executive Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Motivation:
Jeff is a guy who believes in having a purpose and delivering results. His aim is to have a positive impact and he is fascinated by what technology can do to improve the lives of people and community. So when he can see two police dispatchers in the State of Virginia who previously were unable to talk to each communicating over a shared radio channel that can be created at the flick of a button, it gives him a buzz. He wants to see technology moving from a 5% role to being an enabler of real transformation.
Frustrations:
Jeff gets impatient with people who do not share a sense of purpose or who do not have the willingness of ability to execute on their commitments. He loathes closed-mindedness.
Favourite sites:
Jeff spends a fair amount of time on trade sites such as http://www.policefuturists.org/ or http://rand.org/. He is an avid reader of Bob Behn’s public management report where an interesting article can send him spinning off on a particular research trail. He uses news sites such as CNN and monitors http://www.kiplinger.com/ to see how changes in the economy are likely to impact personal finance. Overall, he is very much a surfer rather than a dedicated visitor with sudden bursts of interests in a wide range of potential topics.
Pet Passions:
Jeff loves to travel and to spend time with his wife and two boys (aged
7 and 5) and ideally combines the two. He also likes to get involved in
the local community has served on a joint legislative committee for the
State of North Carolina and as a Wake County Fire Commissioner. He used
to play American football, but now just focuses on keeping fit. He
loves Italian food (and indeed good food of any kind) and listens to
various genres of music from classical to Sinatra to pop. He is a bit
of a history buff and loves fact-based films and books. For example, he
just finished reading Three Cups of Tea, a great book about building
schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pet Hates:
Jeff does not like intolerance and people who act inconsiderately – for example, people who talk loudly on the phone in a quiet area without any consideration for others.
Magic Wand:
If Jeff had a magic wand, he would give himself (and his family) the ability to teleport anywhere and avoid the hassle of the travel process (and the adverse impact on the environment!).