San Leandro police chief to step down
‘It has been an honor and a privilege,’ Tudor says
SAN LEANDRO >> Police Chief Jeff Tudor, who has led the department since October 2016, has announced that he will retire in June.
Born and raised in San Leandro, Tudor began his career with the San Leandro Police Department in 1995.
During his career, he has worked in patrol, criminal investigations and traffic, as well as with the department’s SWAT team unit and as a field training officer, or someone who works with rookies during his early days on the job.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to be the chief of police in the city where I was born and raised,” Tudor said in a statement. “The city of San Leandro has provided me many opportunities for which I am truly grateful, and I am extremely proud to have worked with so many talented dedicated public servants.”
The city announced Tudor’s upcoming departure Wednesday. He took over the chief position after Sandra Spagnoli left San Leandro to take a job in Beverly Hills.
In 2019, Tudor’s pay and benefits totaled $493,812.55, according to Transparent California, a website that provides a database on the compensation offered to the state’s public employees.
His retirement follows the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office in September last year charging San Leandro police Officer Jason Fletcher with voluntary manslaughter, a felony, in connection with the death of Steven Taylor, a Black man, on April 18
in a San Leandro Walmart store.
The family and friends of Taylor, 33, who was shot after officers confronted him as he was waving a baseball bat inside the store, maintain he was having a mental health crisis.
The slaying led to protests and helped prompt the City Council to pull $1.7 illion from the city’s police budget amid calls demanding changes in how law en
forcement interacts with the public.
Tudor said in an interview that his decision was not a result of that case but because at age 49 and the years he had put into the department it made him eligible to retire.
“There was no one incident,” he said. “Being a police officer, you have a lot of interactions with people. That’s what I have loved about the job, the relation
ships you build.”
Retirement will allow him to spend more time with his family, he said.
Tudor began working for the city when he was 12 years old, volunteering with the Recreation and Human Services Department before getting a job with the department and then getting hired as a police officer.
Tudor’s retirement will take effect June 23.
“Chief Tudor will be
greatly missed,” Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter said in a release. “He earned the top cop position several years ago because of his servant leadership, approachability, responsiveness and love for our community’s well- being. He also demonstrated himself to be a thoughtful and effective leader who truly cared about the San Leandro community through
out my two decades in public office. I wish him well in the next chapter of his life.”
Interim City Manager Fran Robustelli has begun discussions with the City Council regarding how she will recruit the next police chief, according to the release.