Oakland police Chief LeRonne Armstrong placed on leave
OAKLAND — Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong was placed on administrative leave on Thursday, multiple sources have told the Bay Area News Group, in a move that comes on the heels of a report that found “systemic deficiencies” in how his department investigates misconduct cases.
Four law enforcement sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed that Armstrong was placed on leave.
Later Thursday, newly-seated Mayor Sheng Thao and City Administrator Ed Reiskin announced they put Armstrong on paid leave, following the release of an investigation by an outside law firm hired by the city.
“The decision was not taken lightly, but we believe that it is critical for the safety of our community that we build trust and confidence between the Department and the public,” Thao and Reiskin said in a statement. “We must have transparency and accountability to move forward as a safer and stronger Oakland.”
Assistant Chief Darren Allison, the second-highest ranking member at OPD, will serve as acting chief, the officials said.
The decision could mark the beginning of the end of Armstrong’s two-decade career with OPD. The West Oakland native was appointed as chief in February 2021, following the termination of Chief Anne Kirkpatrick. A call made to Armstrong’s cell phone this afternoon went directly to voicemail.
Over the past decade, the OPD has seen chiefs come and go, including two separate times where the city cycled through three police chiefs in the span of a week. Kirkpatrick, who was fired by Schaaf and the Oakland Police Commission in 2020, succeeded Chief Sean Whent, who was the fourth permanent chief of the department since 2009.
Upon being sworn in as chief, Armstrong had vowed to get OPD out from under federal oversight, where the department has remained for nearly two decades following the infamous “Riders” brutality cases.
After backsliding under Kirkpatrick, OPD under Armstrong’s leadership made strides in achieving court-mandated reforms. Last year, Orrick placed OPD in a one-year probationary period, a signal that the department was close to emerging from oversight.
But the explosive report, compiled by an outside law firm and released this week by a federal judge, pilloried the chief over department-wide failures to investigate misconduct by a sergeant who had been involved in a hit-and-run collision with a parked vehicle.
A subsequent investigation was watered down by an internal affairs captain, and Armstrong himself signed off on the findings without reviewing them or even fully discussing the incident, according to the report.
The outside report was commissioned only after the sergeant admitted — in a separate incident, more than a year later — to discharging his service weapon in the elevator of an OPD building and covering up what happened by tossing the shell casing over the Bay Bridge.
The investigation found Armstrong violated department policies for failing to review the internal affairs investigation and for failing to hold subordinate officers accountable for misconduct.
“The multiple failures, at every level, to hold this sergeant responsible, belie OPD’s stated position that it can police itself and hold its members accountable for misconduct,” the report states.
In their statement, Thao and Reiskin said the city “understands that additional findings are forthcoming.”
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this report.