A new era begins for Oakland police
Anne Kirkpatrick sworn in as city’s 1st female chief
Anne Kirkpatrick was sworn in as Oakland police chief Monday, casting herself as a truth teller to push the city department toward progress after years of periodic turbulence and a procession of leaders who tried, and sometimes failed, to implement reforms in the troubled force.
Kirkpatrick, 57, is the first woman to hold the top position in the Oakland Police Department. In a short speech delivered inside the council chambers of City Hall, she promised to reduce crime — her “true north” goal — and mend fractured relationships with the community.
“We know where the goal line is,” she said during the ceremony. “We know how to get there. So now all we have to do is go.”
Kirkpatrick was an outsider pick — a status made unmistakable by her distinct Southern twang.
“You are a charmer, and now we can add Memphis to the list of languages that are spoken in Oakland,” Mayor Libby Schaaf said during the ceremony, referring to Kirkpatrick’s hometown and the city in which she first put on a police badge.
Toward the beginning of her career, Kirkpatrick moved to Washington state, earning a law degree from Seattle University and climbing the ranks to be police chief of three departments and second-in-command of the King County Sheriff ’s Office. Last year, she went to Chicago to lead the Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards as the city worked on reforms after the
“We know where the goal line is. We know how to get there. So now all we have to do is go.” Anne Kirkpatrick, new Oakland police chief
shooting of Laquan McDonald, a black teen killed by a white officer.
Kirkpatrick began interviewing for the Oakland job soon after she got to the Windy City and before the bulk of the outlined reforms could be realized. Schaaf said Monday that during an interview, she was impressed with Kirkpatrick’s take on the “broken windows” philosophy of policing — she said that law enforcement should address quality-of-life issues without overreaching into disadvantaged communities — and with her response to how she wanted to be known as a chief.
“You said you hoped to be remembered as a decent woman with good values — a pioneer who restored the nobility of policing,” Schaaf said.
In Oakland, Kirkpatrick finds a department beset with challenges and one still licking its wounds from a series of recent scandals, the biggest of which involved allegations that several officers had sexual relations with a sexually exploited teen. That episode, amid swirling questions of who knew what and when, led to the departure of Kirkpatrick’s predecessor, Sean Whent. Two successors each lasted only days.
Schaaf, calling the department a “frat house” with a “toxic, macho culture,” in June appointed a civilian, City Administrator Sabrina Landreth, to run the agency while a nationwide search was conducted for a permanent chief.
The handling of the misconduct case drew a sharp rebuke from the federal judge who has overseen the department for the last 14 years, after the city settled a landmark civil rights case involving the corruption and abuses of four officers in West Oakland. The scandal threatened to prolong the court oversight, which appeared to be coming to an end, and caused morale within the ranks to plunge.
While Kirkpatrick joins a department still under court oversight, in some ways it’s a new era for the city and its relationship to the police. In November, voters overwhelmingly approved a citizen-led police commission with the authority to fire the chief.
Kirkpatrick, who told The Chronicle she looked forward to working with the commission, didn’t touch on the past controversies at City Hall, telling reporters, “History is a part of our fabric, but we’ve got to look to the future.”
The heads of the Piedmont, Berkeley, Emeryville and San Leandro police departments as well as the Alameda County Sheriff ’s Office attended the ceremony, as did Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley.
Noticeably absent were some members of the Oakland City Council and Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed, who had gone on leave last month, came back to the office briefly, but was on leave again Monday, sources said.
In an interview with The Chronicle last week, Kirkpatrick said that creating bonds between the police and community must center on day-today interactions.
“When you walk into the police department, how you get treated at the counter makes a big difference,” she said, citing her frustrating experience getting a California driver’s license at a Department of Motor Vehicles’ branch last week.
While the Oakland force has a challenged relationship with the community, she said, it’s “hard to be a police officer in America right now.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Oakland or Chicago or a town you’ve never heard of,” she said in the interview. “Being a police officer in America today is tough.”
Kirkpatrick told reporters that she wasn’t “a quitter” and has long been drawn to the Oakland agency — a sense illustrated by the fact that it wasn’t her first time applying for the job.
Councilman Abel Guillén said her persistence was possibly the most promising part about her appointment. Kirkpatrick’s choice to live in Oakland, unlike some predecessors who lived outside city limits, was assuring, too, he said.
“The fact that she re-applied says a lot to me,” he said. “She wants to be in this city . ... Her ability to walk to work and see neighbors just like other Oaklanders says a lot for me, and that’s a welcome change from the perspective of the community.”