By Khalida Sarwari
Two finalists remain in the running for San Jose’s new chief of police, and one of them could be the city’s first black chief.
Oakland’s police Chief Anthony Batts and San Jose’s acting police Chief Chris Moore are competing to replace a vacancy left by Chief Rob Davis after he retired at the end of October.
“We have two very good, very viable candidates that will make the decision more difficult,” said Tom Manheim, a spokesman for the city manager’s office.
More than 30 people applied for the job, Manheim said. City manager Debra Figone is expected to make her decision in early February.
Batts is in the second year of a three-year contract with the Oakland Police Department. He became Oakland’s police chief in October 2009 after being selected by former Mayor Ron Dellums. Previously he was chief of the Long Beach Police Department in Southern California.
In addition to coping with Oakland’s high crime rate, Batts has had to deal with officer layoffs due to budget cuts and civil unrest in the wake of the Oscar Grant shooting. On his watch, crime was down 14 percent in 2010 compared with 2009.
Mark Correia, an associate professor in the justice studies department at San Jose State University, said Batts’ appointment would be “a tremendous loss for Oakland and an incredible gain for the city of San Jose.”
“Even though San Jose is one of the safest cities, there is a lot of tension along race and ethnicity,” Correia said. “He would bring a lot of his experience to help temper that strain that seems to be increasing over the last three to five years.”
Correia, an expert in police and community relations and organizational change in police agencies, is a member of an academic advisory committee that Batts established in Oakland.
The committee – which is comprised of about 12 scholars from the University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University and San Jose State University – meets with Batts’ command staff once monthly to guide the Oakland Police Department in implementing practices to build trust and rapport with the community.
“I think Chief Batts would bring a level of professionalism and innovation that San Jose has not seen,” Correia said. “In a sense of his vision, of his problem-oriented, community-oriented policing, his understanding of the need to use information and data from communities, whether religious groups or to help develop effective policies for the Police Department.”
But Shelby Minister, a coordinator for the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, expressed doubt about Batts’ commitment to San Jose after his short tenure in Oakland.
“It’s like, Is he just doing this for publicity? What’s his actual commitment to the city of San Jose?” she said.
Minister said that regardless of who is appointed, she hopes the new chief will address racial profiling and the Police Department’s use of force — two issues that have plagued the department in recent years.
The department was heavily criticized in two high-profile cases in 2009: the cases of Daniel Pham, a mentally ill man who was shot and killed by police as he held a knife, and San Jose State University student Phuong Quang Ho, who was injured in a confrontation with police. Both incidents angered the local Vietnamese-American community.
Zelica Rodriguez, a policy director for the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network, or SIREN, said the immigrant community would especially hold the next police chief accountable.
“We’re hoping that whoever comes in will work with the community to improve that relationship,” Rodriguez said. “Chief Batts has done a lot of really great work in Oakland.”
She said Batts’ implementation of a car impoundment policy that gives police officers the option of permitting unlicensed drivers with non-hazardous violations to park their cars was “progressive.”
The policy replaces the prior practice of towing and impounding vehicles of unlicensed drivers for 30 days after they are pulled over for traffic violations, which especially affected immigrant drivers and their families.
The Rev. Jeff Moore, president of the Silicon Valley-San Jose NAACP, said that Batts would help rebuild trust with communities that might feel alienated by police. San Jose police officers are also in favor of Batts taking the helm, Moore said.
“Our peace officers are looking forward to change,” Moore said. “San Jose over the last six to seven years has had an all-white command staff, so this would be breaking that glass ceiling in the Police Department.”
San Jose Councilman Sam Liccardo expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of Batts moving to San Jose, but also touted Moore’s achievements.
“In a very short period of time, he has improved the relationship between the department and the community, particularly in the Latino community,” Liccardo said. “He seems to have the widespread respect of his peers in the department.”