Overview
- James Beere was sworn in as Oakland’s permanent police chief Wednesday at City Hall after Mayor Barbara Lee announced his promotion on July 9.
- Beere is a 29-year Oakland Police Department veteran who has lived in the city, raised a family there, graduated from the FBI Academy, and previously served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps.
- He said he will keep enforcing the court-ordered reform measures, expand the community-led Ceasefire violence-reduction strategy, boost recruitment for the roughly 612-officer department, and emphasize constitutional policing.
- The appointment won public backing from Mayor Barbara Lee, union leadership including Oakland Police Officers Association president Huy Nguyen, and other local officials who cited Beere’s local roots and internal relationships as stabilizing assets.
- The department remains under long-running federal monitoring stemming from the early-2000s Riders scandal, and a federal court hearing this fall could determine whether compliance is sufficient to end oversight with Beere leading that process.