{"id":266188,"date":"2026-04-13T21:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266188\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:38:07","slug":"sacramento-police-chief-kathy-lester-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266188\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento police chief Kathy Lester announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This is a developing story; check back with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sacbee.com<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n<p>Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, the first woman to serve as the city\u2019s police chief, announced Monday her retirement after serving for nearly three decades in law enforcement.<\/p>\n<p>Lester, who succeeded Daniel Hahn as police chief, presided over soaring violence in Sacramento during the COVID-19 pandemic and the capital city\u2019s worst mass shooting on K Street. Six people died and 12 more were injured in what prosecutors have alleged was a standoff between two gangs.<\/p>\n<p>Crime in the city of Sacramento <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/news\/local\/crime\/article314401220.html\">cratered last year,<\/a> with sharp declines across car thefts, burglaries, robberies, rape and homicides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cServing the Sacramento community has been the honor of my career,\u201d she wrote in a news release. \u201cThe decision comes at the right time for me and my family, and I look forward to the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lester first joined the Sacramento Police department in 1994 as a dispatcher and became a sworn officer in 1996. She worked across many departments before ascending to the top leadership position.<\/p>\n<p>She is a Sacramento State graduate and served in the Army.<\/p>\n<p>Lester\u2019s retirement also comes as the city grapples with a $66.2 million budget deficit that called for cutting vacant police positions and moving officers to new jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Her retirement is effective May 15, before the council is expected to adopt a final budget in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"summary gray\">This story was originally published April 13, 2026 at 1:47 PM.<\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/279278099\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ISHANI-DESAI-HEADSHOT.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Ishani Desai\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/279278099\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ishani Desai<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Ishani Desai is a government watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered crime and courts for The Bakersfield Californian.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a developing story; check back with sacbee.com for updates. Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-266188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266188","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=266188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}