announced the city was promoting him to the permanent role.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nCheers erupted after his post became official.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing before the crowd, Beere said he never thought he’d ever become OPD chief.<\/p>\n
“Standing here, I am truly humbled,” Beere said, getting emotional at one point while he gave his wife a special thanks for her support.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the ceremony, Lee called Beere a “dedicated servant” whose time had come to lead Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His family was asked to stand briefly so that Council President Kevin Jenkins could thank them for letting Oakland borrow their father.<\/p>\n
Jenkins said that in a city that often has disagreements, Beere seems to have the “highest favorability outside the mayor.”<\/p>\n
Beere had been serving as interim chief since Dec. 6. He joined the Oakland Police Department in 1997 and has served with the agency for nearly 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During his tenure, he has lived in Oakland, raised his family in the city, and earned several internal department merit and leadership awards. He holds a degree from Golden Gate University and is a graduate of the FBI Academy.<\/p>\n
Lee and other city leaders cited Beere’s deep familiarity with both the city and the police department as a key factor in his selection. That perspective is shared by the Oakland Police Officers Association.<\/p>\n
Huy Nguyen, president of the officers union, noted that Beere previously served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps and has built strong trust among rank-and-file officers. Nguyen said members are very supportive of Beere leading the 612-officer agency.<\/p>\n
Riders scandal, oversight<\/p>\n
The backstory<\/p>\n
![\"<div>Oakland](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ktvu_fox_local_articles_961\/d38f16255cbc5afa6a4eb3684b2b808f.jpeg\"\/)
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Oakland Police Chief James Beere is sworn in at City Hall. July 29, 2026<\/p>\n
Leadership stability has been a challenge for the agency, which has had 12 police chiefs since 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A central issue for previous chiefs has been the department’s ongoing federal oversight, which stems from the “Riders” scandal two decades ago and requires OPD to maintain a specific set of court-ordered reforms.<\/p>\n
Beere told KTVU earlier this month that he not only understands the federal oversight process, but has embraced it throughout his career at OPD.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City leaders expressed confidence that his background equips him to navigate the remaining requirements and guide the department toward independence.<\/p>\n
The department could finally exit federal oversight following a court hearing with a federal judge scheduled for this fall.<\/p>\n
Beere made special mention in his speech of constitutional policing and his commitment to police reforms.<\/p>\n
“I am here for you. I am here for the department,” Beere said. “I look forward to leading into the future.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
OPD Chief James Beere, Mayor Barbara Lee, Council President Kevin Jenkins, Huy Nguyen, president of the officers union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief City leaders and community members gathered at Oakland City Hall on Wednesday to officially swear in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2351,33744,136794,33884,8550,143,10000,145,144,407,4310,15635],"class_list":["post-417068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-barbara-lee","tag-beere","tag-federal-oversight","tag-james-beere","tag-kevin-jenkins","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-city-hall","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police-department","tag-opd","tag-police-chief"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417068","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=417068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"<div>James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/ktvu_fox_local_articles_961\/c558483c5d3de461eae2853178f05b8f.jpeg\"\/)
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