{"id":266862,"date":"2026-04-14T06:20:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266862\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:20:22","slug":"sacramento-police-chief-kathy-lester-retires-after-32-years-honor-of-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/266862\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester retires after 32 years. \u2018Honor of my career\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a developing story; check back with sacbee.com<\/a> for updates.<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, the first woman to serve as the city\u2019s police chief, announced Monday her retirement after serving for more than three decades in law enforcement.<\/p>\n

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 in 2022 on K Street. Six people died and 12 more were injured in what prosecutors have alleged was a standoff between two gangs.<\/p>\n

Crime in the city of Sacramento cratered last year,<\/a> with sharp declines across car thefts, burglaries, robberies, rape and homicides.<\/p>\n

\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

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

She is a Sacramento State graduate and served in the Army.<\/p>\n

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

Her retirement is effective May 15, before the council is expected to adopt a final budget in June. Deputy Chief Zachary Bales<\/a> will assume Lester\u2019s role as an interim chief during a critical period.<\/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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[116576,15635,121,123,122,5481],"class_list":{"0":"post-266862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-daniel-hahn","9":"tag-police-chief","10":"tag-sacramento","11":"tag-sacramento-headlines","12":"tag-sacramento-news","13":"tag-sacramento-state"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266862","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=266862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}