The Oakland, California Police Department has hired former Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick as its new leader.
Kirkpatrick was introduced today by Oakland’s mayor as a “reform-minded chief”. She’ll take over a department that has gone through a handful of chiefs during the last year. Some of them were involved in a scandal involving an underage sex worker.
For the last several months, the Oakland Police Department has been led by the city administrator while a search for an outside leader was conducted. In Oakland, she’ll be asked to change the culture of the department and rebuild trust within the community.
Kirkpatrick was also an outsider when she came to Spokane in 2006 to lead the Spokane Police Department. She was a chief who was popular in the community but who ruffled feathers within the ranks of her department. She left Spokane early in 2012, not long after a jury convicted Officer Karl Thompson of violating the civil rights of Otto Zehm, who died during a scuffle with officers in a convenience store.
Kirkpatrick has most recently worked with the Chicago Police Department, working to reform the Windy City’s police culture.