City Government

City Hires Sean Whent to Lead Police Department

Published

12 years ago

May 14, 2014

Mayor Jean Quan announced Tuesday that interim chief Sean Whent will become the new chief of the Oakland Police Department

Whent has served as the interim chief since Howard Jordan resigned last May for medical reasons.

Whent has proven himself to be the leader that both the department and the city need, said Quan.

“He has built a strong leadership team that works together,” she said, calling new chief progressive collaborative.

“You can see and feel the difference in the community,” Quan added.

While he says there still much work to be done, Whent says he is excited to be in the position and hopes to continue the progress the department has made in the last 12 months.

Whent is an 18-year OPD veteran. He has worked in the Patrol Division, Criminal Investigations Division, Support Operations Division, Internal Affairs Division and the Office of Inspector General.

Prior to his appointment as chief, he was a Deputy Chief in charge of the Bureau of Risk Management.

Since Whent became interim chief, Oakland has seen its second-largest decline in homicides in 40 years. Crime rates are continuing to drop, with declines of more than 30 percent in shootings, robberies and home burglaries so far in 2014, according to the City.

In April, the largest graduating class of new officers from the Police Academy joined the force.

“I know it’s only with true partnership between our police and our communities that Oakland is getting safer,” he said.

Whent expressed his confidence that OPD will fully fulfill the tasks associated with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, which has meant that the department has remained under the supervision of federal Judge Thelton Henderson and court-appointed monitors since 2003.

Oakland has had a difficult time retaining a police chief role in recent years. After the resignation of Wayne Tucker in 2009, the city hired Anthony Batts, former Long Beach Chief of Police.

Batts abruptly resigned in October 2011, citing issues working with the city’s leadership officials. Howard Jordan was named interim police chief and confirmed as chief in February 2012

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Related Topics:City of Oakland crime Fred Blackwell Jean Quan Oakland Police Department OPD Sean Whent

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

3 days ago

July 5, 2026

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”