The change of a police chief in a police agency in no small matter. For a police chief to step down amidst controversy, is a rare thing. To lose three police chiefs in the short time span of eight days, is absolutely unheard of. Going back to 2009, Oakland has gone through six police chiefs. Instability in a department can always be determined by the rotating door of command staff. When nobody wants the responsibility, or when no one can fix the problems that are systemic throughout a police agency, this is the result.
The City of Oakland has turned the running of the police department over to a civilian. City Administrator Sabrina Landreth will take over the agency, in a unique move by Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Schaaf, who voiced obvious frustration at a press conference this week, stated “I am here to run a police department, not a frat house.” The turmoil in the department goes back decades, having been put under federal oversight since an incident involving police misconduct in 2003. Most recently, Oakland PD has been wrought with scandal surrounding five of its officers’ involvement with a prostitute, who happened to be the daughter of a police dispatcher and also happened to be underage.
The first chief to step down was Sean Whent. Whent was a twenty year veteran of the Oakland Police Department, having taken the role of “interim” police chief in 2014. Although Whent stepped down voluntarily, rumblings from the city indicate that Whent was actually fired for his mishandling of the sex scandal, as well as a text messaging scandal involving officers and racially discriminatory texts.
The next chief appointed was Ben Fairow. Fairow lasted five days before being fired by the Mayor. Schaaf discovered that Fairow, who had been previously employed with the Oakland PD and was on load from BART police, had been involved in a sexual affair during his time there. The Mayor admitted that she made a mistake in hiring Fairow, and then appointed Paul Figueroa. Figueroa has also stepped down after only two days. According to the Mayor, Figueroa’s decision to resign was not related to either the text messaging or sex scandals, which have rocked the agency.
The turmoil demonstrated at the Oakland Police Department is not unique. These types of scandals hit every police agency. The reason you never hear about them is because of police chiefs keeping the department’s dirt on the inside. The Mayor of Oakland, by putting control of the department in the hands of a civilian, while an act of desperation, could turn out to be a transformative event. Having a civilian step in and take control of a department out of control, could prove to be a model all agencies should employ. Having an outside eye, monitoring the activities of the department, unwilling to bend to internal pressures, may just be what this city and the rest of the country needs.
Sources: East Bay Times, Mercury News, KTLA.
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