Thao will take over search for new Oakland police chief if commission fails to deliver

(KRON) — Former Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong was fired in February. Seven months later, the department is still without a police chief.

The department’s police commission is in charge of the search for a new chief. However, if the process continues to drag on, the mayor will step in to expedite it, she told KRON4 on Thursday.

If she finds it necessary, Mayor Sheng Thao will call for a state of emergency in order to hire a police chief. Thao set a deadline for three candidates’ names to be sent to her office by the end of the year.

“If (the police commission) does not do this by the end of the year, I will call for a state of emergency so that I can go actually hire a police chief myself,” Thao told KRON4’s Stephanie Lin. (Watch the full interview in the player above.)

Despite not having a police chief, Thao said the city received $1.2 million from the state for the 300 cameras to support the OPD officers on the street.

“The state of emergency that I’m calling for is actually so we can move forward with finding a new police chief. Getting the resources from the state, we’ve done that,” Thao said.

Earlier this summer, Bishop Bob Jackson of the NAACP branch in Oakland called on Thao to declare a public safety state of emergency.

“I think it’s moving in the right direction,” Jackson said of the ongoing search for Oakland’s police chief. “I am glad to hear she is saying that, but I think January is a little too late.”

A local state of emergency declaration gives the Oakland city administrator the power to expedite public safety contracts, temporarily suspend municipal codes, activate city workers and will qualify Oakland for state and federal emergency funding.

However, some members of the community, like Cat Brooks of the Anti-Police-Terror Project, do not think an emergency declaration is a good idea.

“It is never a good idea to fill our streets with the violence of policing. Data-driven decision-making says we need to fill our streets with violence interrupters,” Brooks said. “We are in a crisis. There is no doubt about that and we’re responding the way we have always responded, and it never works.”