City leaders are hosting a third and final meeting on Thursday night to solicit community feedback on selecting Vallejo’s next police chief.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in the Vallejo Room of the John F. Kennedy Library located at 505 Santa Clara Street, according to the city. Residents are encouraged to share feedback about what they would like to see in a new police chief with City Manager Andrew Murray and executive recruiters from Bob Hall & Associates, the firm hired by Vallejo to assist with the search.
The city plans to begin screening candidates in August, conduct panel interviews in September, and make a final selection by October, with candidate names kept confidential throughout the process, according to the recruitment firm. Murray is ultimately responsible for hiring Vallejo’s next police chief — a critical early test of the new city manager, who assumed his role roughly two months ago.
Interim Chief Jason Ta has led Vallejo’s police department since his predecessor, Shawny Williams, abruptly resigned in November 2022. The next chief will inherit a short-staffed department that has for years struggled to implement a series of reform efforts led by the California Department of Justice in response to the city’s high rate of police shootings and other alleged civil rights abuses.
In April, the state justice department and Vallejo entered into a settlement agreement that outlines more than a hundred reforms meant to “bring Vallejo into alignment with contemporary best practices and ensure constitutional policing,” according to the DOJ. The settlement came after the California DOJ dismissed its lawsuit against Vallejo, abandoning an attempt to impose a consent decree on Vallejo.
At a similar community forum in June attended by more than a dozen people, residents expressed a desire for a new chief who can tackle the reform efforts, provide strong leadership, and restore trust between the department and the community.
City officials are also gathering feedback on the police chief recruitment process through an online survey.
