{"id":207724,"date":"2026-03-06T18:48:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207724\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T18:48:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:48:45","slug":"brent-stratton-announced-new-bakersfield-police-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207724\/","title":{"rendered":"Brent Stratton announced new Bakersfield police chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 The city of Bakersfield has finally chosen a new police chief.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/possible-candidates-next-bakersfield-chief-011620481.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Brent Stratton;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brent Stratton<\/a>, who was serving as assistant chief, was named the chief of police, according to the city of Bakersfield on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stratton was a finalist for the seat along with Jeremy Blakemore, who is also an assistant chief at BPD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His appointment comes following several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/final-listening-session-search-bakersfield-225104336.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:community input sessions;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">community input sessions<\/a> and interviews with nearly a dozen candidates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stratton is set to lead the department after the current police chief, Greg Terry, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/bakersfield-police-chief-announces-retirement-195808448.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:retires in April;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">retires in April<\/a>. Stratton\u2019s appointment takes effect May 1, according to city officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As assistant chief, Brent Stratton managed the Field Services Division and Special Operations Division at BPD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stratton has worked at BPD since 2004, according to officials. He climbed the ranks and held positions as detective, sergeant, lieutenant and captain across assignments like Patrol, Major Crimes, Violent Criminal Apprehension Team, Watch Commander and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\/plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watch \u2018After Sunrise\u2019 on KGET+; Click to learn how to get KGET+ on your smart TV devices;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> Watch \u2018After Sunrise\u2019 on KGET+; Click to learn how to get KGET+ on your smart TV devices <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stratton served 12 years on the SWAT team as an operator, supervisor and commander. He also represents the police department in the \u201cBaker 2 Vegas\u201d relay race every year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He has a Bachelor\u2019s degree from San Diego State University in History and a Master\u2019s Degree from CSU Bakersfield in Public Policy and Administration, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 The city of Bakersfield has finally chosen a new police chief. Brent Stratton, who&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[23824,151,153,152,76948,15635],"class_list":["post-207724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-assistant-chief","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-brent-stratton","tag-police-chief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}