{"id":392686,"date":"2026-07-09T23:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392686\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T23:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:34:22","slug":"oaklands-interim-police-chief-hired-as-citys-next-permanent-top-cop-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/392686\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland’s interim police chief hired as city’s next permanent top cop"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 James Beere, the city\u2019s interim police chief<\/a>, will serve permanently as the top cop<\/a>, staying at the helm of a department that has historically faced considerable turnover<\/a> in leadership as it reaches the cusp of exiting two decades of oversight<\/a> by a federal court.<\/p>\n

Mayor Barbara Lee announced Thursday she had hired Beere, a 29-year veteran of the Oakland Police Department who has served as the interim police chief<\/a> since November, from a shortlist of four final candidates, capping a nearly eight-month search to replace the previous chief<\/a>.<\/p>\n

OPD has seen chiefs come and go in rapid succession over the past decade, including two separate times where the city cycled through three police chiefs in the span of a week. Ten people have led the department since 2015.<\/p>\n

One of the first tests of Beere\u2019s tenure as chief may center around whether Judge William Orrick decides to release OPD from his supervision later this year, a long-anticipated milestone that city officials and the court have signaled may finally be within reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my duty,\u201d Beere said at a news conference Thursday. \u201cThis is what God has called on me to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beere appears to have developed a strong relationship with Lee, regularly appearing alongside the mayor at news conferences and public events.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Oakland Police Chief James Beere and Mayor Barbara Lee embrace as she congratulates him during his official announcement at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, July 9, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

That public alignment is a departure from the more reserved approach of former Chief Floyd Mitchell, who resigned last October after clashing with the civilian Oakland Police Commission, a volunteer body that also oversees the department and its leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings both professional experience and a personal commitment to our city\u2019s future,\u201d Lee said of Beere at Thursday\u2019s news conference.<\/p>\n

That the department answers to Orrick, the commission and the mayor alike has led past police chiefs to publicly rail against having so many bosses.<\/p>\n

Beere, however, has steered clear of political infighting, instead emphasizing in public statements and interviews his love for Oakland across three decades of living here. All three of his sons attended Oakland\u2019s public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where I raised my kids,\u201d he said, \u201cand I want to make sure my neighbors, my friends, my own family members live the life that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beere had applied for the job when it was last vacant, but failed to emerge as a finalist in the recruitment that led to Mitchell\u2019s hiring in 2024.<\/p>\n

He now leads a department that has faced a number of scandals, beginning with the infamous Riders brutality cases that first led the department to be placed under federal oversight in 2003.<\/p>\n

Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who preceded Mitchell, was fired in 2023 amid alleged failures by internal affairs investigators to discipline an officer involved in a hit-and-run.<\/p>\n

Armstrong unsuccessfully led a public campaign to be reinstated, saying his firing had been a ploy by federal officials who oversee OPD\u2019s affairs to remain in power.<\/p>\n

The next year, nearly all of OPD\u2019s remaining command staff was fired by civilian investigators<\/a> who determined that the department\u2019s senior leadership had mishandled a probe into alleged misconduct<\/a> by Detective Phong Tran, who now awaits a felony trial on charges that he bribed a murder witness.<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland interim police Chief James Beere works in his office at police headquarters in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Beere has applied for the permanent chief\u2019s position. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

While Armstrong and Mitchell criticized all the scrutiny they faced amid OPD\u2019s various scandals, Beere has taken a more diplomatic approach. If it weren\u2019t for mandatory reforms that rehabilitated the department\u2019s culture, Beere said Thursday, he never would have become the chief.<\/p>\n

Lee, after taking office, appointed high-ranking city official Michelle Phillips to an administrative role ensuring \u201cconstitutional policing\u201d in Oakland. Beere accepted the fresh layer of bureaucratic oversight.<\/p>\n

Orrick, in turn, has enthusiastically praised OPD\u2019s newfound direction, signaling he could formally end the court\u2019s oversight as soon as this fall.<\/p>\n

Police staffing has dwindled in Oakland, with the officers\u2019 union reporting just 618 sworn officers Thursday, down from well over 700 in 2023. Beere promised to shore up hiring and fill the city\u2019s police academies, citing a revived police cadet program<\/a> as a start.<\/p>\n

Crime, however, has been on a steady decline since 2024, following a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Police had investigated 26 homicides this year through July 6, a 32% drop from the same date in 2025. Last year, as a whole, saw the fewest investigated homicides in six decades.<\/p>\n

By the same year-to-date metric, robberies this year have fallen by 27% and burglaries by 32%. Beere and Lee both said they are aware that city residents still don\u2019t always feel safe. But they also expressed optimism about Oakland\u2019s broader direction.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew Oakland Police Chief James Beere pauses during his official announcement by Mayor Barbara Lee at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, July 9, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019ve been given this opportunity to continue serving this great city,\u201d Beere said Thursday. \u201cThis is truly the diamond in the Bay Area. And we need to make this diamond shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe badge of new Oakland Police Chief James Beere is displayed on his chest during his official announcement by Mayor Barbara Lee at Oakland City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, July 9, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 James Beere, the city\u2019s interim police chief, will serve permanently as the top cop, staying at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[7,8,100,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-392686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392686","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=392686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}