Democratic Mayor Sheng Thao announced the dismissal of Oakland Police chief Leronne Armstrong on February 15, 2023. The investigations against him revealed that he tried to save an officer’s misbehaviour in his department around one year ago.
In 2021, Armstrong was appointed as a chief police officer of Oakland 2021 and fired due to failing to discipline officer Sgt. Michael Chung, in 2021 he was involved in a hit-and-run in a patrol car.
Reporter Joe Rodriguez twitted about this incident as :
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is firing Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong
“I am no longer confident Chief Armstrong can do the work needed”
Thao announced the decision after a scathing independent report found officers covered up an investigation into a site’s hit and run.
The mayor said that according to the investigation, it happened multiple times, and Chung’s misconduct was concealed by the Armstrong many times. He also tried to hide his on-duty misconduct.
Leronne Armstrong : Placed on adminstrative leave
If we talk about the record of last ten years, The city of Oakland had ten police chiefs. Leronne Armstrong spent two years as chief police officer of Oakland.
Armstrong had been sent to administrative leave last month because he was under investigation. He was charged for failing to discipline officer Sgt. Michael Chung on many times.
After completing the investigation and reviewing all evidence, the mayor decided to fire Armstrong as chief. According to some other source of news, in March 2021 Chung hit a Mercedes in a parking are with his patrol vehicle at San Francisco apartment building.
All this event was captured in the CCTV camera, according to footage he was seen fleeing from the parking lot without checking the damage in the civilian vehicle.
Statements from officials
Mayor Thao said :
“Within days of being notified of that the city needed time to carefully review the findings and the evidence in these very serious cases, Chief Armstrong made a number of statements that troubled me”
She further added “In response to a public report that concluded that OPD had repeatedly failed to rigorously investigate misconduct and hold officers accountable, Chief Armstrong said these were not incidents where officers behaved poorly. He stated that he did not believe these incidents reflected system problems. Chief Armstrong described the underlying incident as a ‘minor vehicle collision.’ He said, ‘officers make mistakes.”
Armstrong also released a statement about mayor’s action :
“I am deeply disappointed in the Mayor’s decision. After the relevant facts are fully evaluated by weighing evidence instead of pulling soundbites from strategically leaked, inaccurate reports, it will be clear I was a loyal and effective reformer of the Oakland Police Department.”
“It will be equally clear that I committed no misconduct, and my termination is fundamentally wrong, unjustified, and unfair. I anticipate releasing a more detailed statement soon once I have the chance to fully digest the Mayor’s remarks.”
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