{"id":318204,"date":"2026-05-16T02:11:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318204\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T02:11:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T02:11:14","slug":"sacramentos-first-woman-police-chief-retires-after-32-years-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318204\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento\u2019s first woman police chief retires after 32 years. Here\u2019s what to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathy Lester, the first woman to lead the Sacramento Police Department, retired from the agency Friday after three decades in law enforcement. Her departure marks the end of a four-year tenure that began during one of the most turbulent periods in the department\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know:<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester talks Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, about a recent crime report that shows a year-to-date reduction in violent crime \u2013 including homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault \u2013 compared to 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Retiring<\/p>\n

Retiring Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester, right, marches with her interim replacement Zachary Bales to the annual California Peace Officers\u2019 Memorial enrollment ceremony in Sacramento on Monday, May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lester announced her retirement after more than 32 years<\/a> in law enforcement, calling her service to Sacramento \u201cthe honor of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 During her tenure as chief, homicides dropped 22% and shootings dropped 24.7%<\/a> from 2022 to 2025, while motor vehicle thefts plunged 37% in the same period.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lester took over a department in crisis after her predecessor Daniel Hahn left under a cloud following the fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man, which ignited nationwide calls for police reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester walks the scene of the mass shooting in downtown Sacramento that left six dead on Sunday, April 3, 2022.<\/p>\n

(Hector Amezcua)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Just months after Lester was sworn in, six people were killed and 12 injured in the worst mass shooting in Sacramento\u2019s history<\/a> on K Street, which prosecutors alleged was a standoff between two gangs. The trial for suspects Mtula Payton and Dandrae Martin continue<\/a> in Sacramento Superior Court.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lester was sworn in at Golden 1 Center<\/a> on March 17, 2022, becoming the 46th police chief and the first woman to lead the department in its 172-year history.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester has her badge pinned by daughter Jacklyn Hughes while standing on stage with her other children Hannah, left, and Liam and her husband Keith Hughes, right, during her swearing in ceremony at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 17, 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A Sacramento native, Lester dropped out of Cordova High School, joined the Army at 17 and worked odd jobs before joining the department as a dispatcher in 1994<\/a> because it paid double what she was making at the time.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Lester pledged her department would adopt the \u201c30×30\u201d initiative<\/a>, aiming to increase the proportion of female sworn officers to 30% by 2030, up from about 17% when she took office.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester speaks with residents about summer crime prevention efforts during a community meeting at the Oak Park Community Center in June 2024.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Deputy Chief Zachary Bales will serve as interim chief as the city works to close a $66.2 million budget deficit<\/a> that includes cutting vacant police positions. He was sworn in Friday at City Hall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence based on our own originally reported, written and published content. Before publishing, journalists reviewed this content in compliance with McClatchy Media\u2019s AI policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester joins Kelly and Denis O\u2019Sullivan, the parents of fallen Sacramento Police officer Tara O\u2019Sullivan, on Monday, May 2, 2022, during the annual ceremony to add the names of fallen officers to the California Peace Officers Memorial at the state Capitol in Sacramento. O\u2019Sullivan was fatally shot in 2019 while responding to a domestic disturbance call.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester speaks to media at the scene early Sunday morning where 18 people were wounded and six died in downtown Sacramento on April 3, 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Sacramento<\/p>\n

Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester speaks at a press conference at the Sacramento Headquarters to talk about a shooting were 18 people were shot and 6 died in downtown Sacramento on Sunday, April 3, 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kathy Lester, the first woman to lead the Sacramento Police Department, retired from the agency Friday after three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[116373,734,15636,121,123,122,9113,21180],"class_list":["post-318204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-kathy-lester","tag-law-enforcement","tag-police-reform","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-sacramento-police-department","tag-sacramento-superior-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318204","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=318204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}