The City of Oakland has lost its third—yes, third—police chief in nine days. And this time, it's not even going to bother with a temporary replacement. OPD is now under civilian control following the resignation of acting chief Paul Figueroa, which came just two days after his hiring.
Figueroa's departure comes amid a spiraling sex scandal involving a 15-year-old prostitute and law enforcement personnel from multiple departments across the East Bay. The city's police force is also embroiled in a separate controversy over racist text messages exchanged between some of its officers.
Mayor Libby Schaff appeared exasperated during her press conference Friday.
"I am here to run a police department, not a frat house,” Schaaf said before promising to root out the "bad apples" and get the department back on track.
The mayor later clarified that Figueroa's resignation was unrelated to the current controversies. Nevertheless, it couldn't have come at a worse time. Figueroa was brought in on Wednesday to replace the last acting chief, Ben Fairow, who was fired just six days after taking over for resigned chief Sean Whent. In all, six different people have headed the department since 2011.
Read more about the scandals and the revolving door of police chiefs here.
Image Credit: Flickr User sharonhahndarlin, https://flic.kr/p/djKFoi via (CC BY 2.0)