Oakland mayor announces interim police chief

OPD’s second-in-command will function Oakland’s high cop as town searches for a everlasting police chief, Mayor Barbara Lee introduced Friday.

James Beere will begin the job after December 5, Floyd Mitchell’s final day. Mitchell’s appointment was introduced in March 2024, after Oakland officers performed a search that lasted a couple of 12 months to switch the division’s earlier head, LeRonne Armstrong.

“Interim Chief Beere has served the Oakland Police Division for greater than 20 years,” Lee mentioned at a information convention at Metropolis Corridor on Friday. “He has the belief of the officers he’ll lead, the respect of the neighborhood companions he has labored with, and a confirmed dedication to constitutional oversight and the reforms that Oakland has fought for.”

Lee’s announcement capped a fraught week for Oakland. On Wednesday, Skyline Excessive College went on lockdown after a teen was shot and injured on campus. On Thursday, Laney Faculty athletic director and former soccer coach John Beam was fatally shot within the college’s fieldhouse. National sockets have reported on the taking pictures of Beam, whose work as a coach was featured in Netflix’s documentary sequence “Last chance U.” OPD introduced at this time that the division has arrested suspects in each shootings.

Noting that this has been “an extremely troublesome week for our metropolis,” Lee mentioned Oakland should proceed working to get weapons off the streets. As interim chief, Beere will likely be charged with overseeing Oakland’s Ceasefire program, a multi-departmental partnership to make use of each enforcement and incentives to focus on people at excessive danger for gun violence, which many metropolis leaders say has helped scale back violent crime in 2024 and 2025.

“I’m dedicated to creating this transition as seamless as potential,” mentioned Beere, who added that he’ll proceed town’s emphasis on addressing violent crime and conducting constitutional policing. Citing the high-profile shootings this week, each of which rapidly led to arrests, Beere warned that individuals who commit gun violence will likely be caught and held accountable by OPD and the Alameda County District Lawyer’s Workplace.

“It is a new day in Oakland and Alameda County,” Beere mentioned.

A brand new function overseeing constitutional policing

Lee additionally introduced that town is creating a brand new metropolis place, the Constitutional Policing Administrator, to be held by Michelle Phillips.

Phillips, who beforehand served as Oakland’s inspector common for the Police Fee, just lately returned to town to work in a high administrative place. Lee supplied few concrete particulars about Phillips’ new function, however the mayor mentioned it is going to work intently with police management on oversight points, coverage growth, inside audits and useful resource allocation.

Phillips thanked Lee for taking management in creating the brand new function, saying, “This step she has taken is a transparent instance of her clear dedication to the negotiated settlement settlement, constructing on the work town and division have carried out through the years.”

The settlement settlement, which stems from a 2003 civil rights case involving police abuse and proof planting, requires OPD to finish 52 reform duties. A federal choose will assessment the division’s progress and finally decide whether or not it might function with out oversight.

Discovering a everlasting chef

Mitchell surprised residents in October when he all of the sudden introduced he had submitted his letter of resignation to town. Hypothesis was rife about Mitchell’s causes for leaving, together with claims that he was pissed off with the regulatory companies that oversee OPD. Mitchell has not publicly shared why he’s leaving the division after simply over a 12 months on the job.

The Oakland Police Commissiona volunteer board that oversees OPD is charged with recruiting new candidates for the everlasting job, interviewing finalists and sending a shortlist of three to the mayor for closing approval.

The Oakland Metropolis Council just lately determined to not reappoint two commissioners, Ricardo Garcia-Acosta and Omar Farmer. Each males will likely be allowed to serve after their phrases expire whereas a volunteer choice panel searches for candidates to fill their positions. The committee canceled its upcoming bimonthly assembly on Thursday resulting from a scarcity of quorum.

In a single recent report The fee, filed with the federal choose overseeing OPD, blasted town for its “failure to vociferously defend its designated unbiased governing physique for police oversight” and warned that it might affect Oakland’s efforts to realize compliance with the negotiated settlement settlement.