{"id":235199,"date":"2026-03-25T03:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235199\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T03:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:30:19","slug":"one-on-one-interview-with-interim-oakland-police-chief-james-beere-as-he-vies-to-become-permanent-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235199\/","title":{"rendered":"One-on-one interview with interim Oakland Police Chief James Beere as he vies to become permanent head"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke with interim Oakland Police Chief James Beere as he makes his case to lead the department permanently.<\/p>\n

In our sit-down Tuesday, Beere addressed everything from staffing shortages to public trust and how both affect daily life in Oakland.<\/p>\n

“Our number one priority though is to serve the community and reduce violence and address crime,” said Beere.<\/p>\n

Beere became interim chief last December.<\/p>\n

He says in addition to taking steps to reestablish trust with the community, he’s also continuing to try and stop crime.<\/p>\n

MORE: What Oakland residents say they’re looking for in their next police chief as search begins<\/a><\/p>\n

A goal, he says, will be achieved by also acknowledging mistakes OPD has made in the past.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t get on board earlier enough with technology, which is something that we started to do probably a couple of years ago,” said Beere.<\/p>\n

Data compiled by ABC7 Eyewitness News shows a double digit decline in many types of crime in Oakland in recent years.<\/p>\n

Beere says those numbers reflect his department’s commitment to things like the city’s ceasefire strategy.<\/p>\n

With the trend moving in that direction, some have questioned whether OPD needs the roughly 250 officers the department is requesting.<\/p>\n

TIMELINE: Oakland has had 11 different police chiefs in 15 years<\/a><\/p>\n

But Beere says they are necessary and cautions that even with increased technology his staff has limitations.<\/p>\n

“You’re talking about increased calls for service, more calls for OPD to assist other agencies… and less law enforcement agencies here,” he said.<\/p>\n

A longtime resident of Oakland, Beere says he’d be honored to serve his community as permanent chief.<\/p>\n

But regardless of whether he’s picked or not, he tells us he’s determined to leave a lasting impact on the Oakland Police Department.<\/p>\n

“If it’s me, I’d be honored. But, if not, I want to make sure this department is set up for success. I want to be able to walk out of this place whether it’s a month from now or three years from now knowing that I made a difference,” said Beere.<\/p>\n

\"Now<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — ABC7 Eyewitness News spoke with interim Oakland Police Chief James Beere as he makes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[106378,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-235199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-106378","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235199","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=235199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}