How will the search for yet another police chief tip the balance of power in Oakland?

OAKLAND — Floyd Mitchell is leaving his job as Oakland’s police chief in part because he grew frustrated at needing to answer to so many bosses — or, at least, that is the consensus among several Oakland police and city officials who worked closely with him.

The chief, who will have lasted just over a year and a half by his Dec. 5 resignation, is the latest in a long line of top cops to exit sooner than expected.

Unlike several predecessors, Mitchell was not fired due to scandal, but simply appeared to grow weary of the various forces designed to hold the city’s police accountable.

Now, those same forces share the responsibility of finding Mitchell’s replacement — and the process could take a while. Recent searches for a new police chief have taken over a year to complete, often exposing dysfunctions in the city’s branches of leadership.

It may prove to be a key test for Mayor Barbara Lee, who began a shortened term after a special election in April. If the search takes as long as it did last time, it could even coincide with the November 2026 election. The mayor has not said if she will choose to run again.

Lee will need to collaborate with the civilian-led Oakland Police Commission, choosing a new hire from a shortlist of candidates presented by the oversight body, which is composed of volunteers who themselves tend to turn over quickly.

“There’s tremendous pressure to satisfy people who are understandably concerned about Oakland’s safety, to give assurance that there is stability in the police department,” said former Mayor Libby Schaaf, who also noted that Lee has an opportune window to find a suitable interim chief before Mitchell leaves in December.

Schaaf had to appoint two interim chiefs in the span of a week back in June 2016, following Chief Sean Whent’s resignation due to a sex-trafficking scandal involving Oakland police officers.

At the end of that week, Schaaf selected then-City Administrator Sabrina Landreth to lead the department until the mayor found a suitable replacement in Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, who lasted three years before being fired in 2020 over repeated clashes with the police commission.

Kirkpatrick’s successor, LeRonne Armstrong, served until 2023, when then-Mayor Sheng Thao fired him over a misconduct scandal involving the Oakland Police Department’s internal disciplinary process. His axing led to a year-long vacancy of a permanent chief before Mitchell took the job in May 2024.

Allegations of misconduct often play a central role in blowing up OPD’s leadership. And these controversies reliably delay the end of a federal court’s longstanding oversight of the department.

As police chief, Mitchell reported weekly to a court-appointed official who has direct influence over OPD’s decision-making, as well as to the mayor and the civilian police commission.

It is an unprecedented level of oversight, the kind that makes the job particularly unappealing to prospective candidates who would enjoy more freedom in other cities. Mitchell helmed the police department in Lubbock, Texas, before taking the Oakland gig.

“Let’s tell the truth: It was slim pickings from the beginning,” said Regina Jackson — a founding member of the police commission who left last year after helping to shortlist the recruitment process that led to Mitchell’s hiring — of the candidates at the time.

“Not everyone wants to jump into the fire and deal with all these voices they’re expected to listen to,” Jackson added. “At the end of the day, everybody (we chose) was qualified. But that doesn’t mean everyone will do an outstanding job.”

Ahead of Mitchell’s hiring, the commission hired a Southern California recruitment firm to conduct a national search. But the commission’s leadership, including Jackson, remained partial to Chief Armstrong.

The dynamics between the commission and Thao became so toxic that at one point, the former mayor told this news organization she would ask voters to remove the civilian body’s power to help hire the chief altogether.

Her idea never took formal shape; Thao herself was removed from office in a recall election last November. Oakland voters, meanwhile, overwhelmingly favored establishing the commission in 2016 and strengthening its authority in 2020.

The commission’s current chair, Ricardo Garcia-Acosta, declined to comment on the upcoming police chief search, citing time constraints.

Earlier this month, the city’s fragile power dynamics were laid bare when City Council President Kevin Jenkins delayed advancing a vote to reappoint Garcia-Acosta and another commissioner, Omar Farmer, to the oversight body.

Those appointments are handled by an independent selection panel, but Jenkins said at the Sept. 25 committee meeting that “concerns arose” about the council’s sign-off.

Jenkins did not respond to an interview request, but the extent of those concerns appears to have been a memo authored by an Oakland resident who frequently criticizes the commission at public forums.

And while the council does have the power to reject commissioners, Jenkins’ move was scathingly criticized by the Coalition for Police Accountability, an advocacy group that first lobbied to establish the oversight body.

“There are people in the community who want to blame oversight” for OPD’s problems, said Millie Cleveland, a member of that group, who argued that a lengthy chief search may be necessary to “find somebody who is committed to constitutional policing.”

Still, Lee now finds herself needing to make a crucial leadership hire in a city looking to continue a positive trend of declining crime levels after a devastating period of violence during the pandemic.

And without a full-time chief to be the face of public safety, the mayor often finds themselves taking the brunt of criticism.

“Oakland’s process, its situation, is extremely complex,” Schaaf said, chuckling. “I wish this mayor luck with that.”