Esquivel Takes Over as Acting Police Chief

Larry Esquivel will take over the role of San Jose’s chief of police starting later this week. City Manager Debra Figone sent out a memo late Monday afternoon announcing the decision.

Below is Figone’s memo in full:

“Because the extension of our search for our next Police Chief will take few more months, I have appointed Deputy Chief Larry Esquivel as Acting Chief during this interim period following the retirement of Chief Chris Moore this week.

“As Acting Chief, Larry will be announcing his additional interim management appointments soon in order to ensure continuity and stability for the Department. During this recruitment process, I have had the opportunity to become more familiar with the SJPD’s command staff. I am impressed with their dedication, and I am confident that Acting Chief Esquivel and his team will serve the Department and the community well. I also recognize that our police leadership team is stretched as a result of recent departures. For this reason, I will continue to work with Larry and his staff to identify supplemental sources of expertise, capacity, and support as necessary to help them and the Department succeed during this transitional period.

“Larry has served as Deputy Chief commanding the Bureau of Field Operations since February 2012. He began his career as a San Jose Police Reserve Officer in 1984, and was hired as Police Officer in 1986. Over his 27-year career with SJPD he has served in Patrol, Narcotics Enforcement, Special Operations-MERGE, Investigations, and Internal Affairs units with increasing levels of responsibility. He was promoted to Captain in 2010 and served as commander for the Foothill Division in the Bureau of Field Operations. He became Acting Deputy Chief- Bureau of Investigations in August 2011, and was promoted to Deputy Chief in February 2012.

“Regarding the current search for our next chief, we are continuing our efforts in earnest. We will take the time we need to find the right match of qualifications, experience, and personal attributes that will be best for San Jose and the Department and to establish the foundation for successful relationship.”

6 Comments

  1. I feel sorry and happy for Larry, great guy, worked with him for years.  Happy for his pay increase, sorry he has to be a puppet for the city.

    If he wanted this job he would have applied.

    Funny of the 5 that applied, 2 withdrew before the joke of the interview process.

    The other 3 said screw you San Jose.  Deb did not even sit on the interview panel, instead she brought in a huge community panel.  Problem is no one in their right mind wants this job.  Who wants to be chief of a department that will be so stripped of officers just be another Oakland.

    It is your job to select a COP, not some crazy panel to appease all, step up and make a decision, you are paid a hell of a lot of money to do your job. Why don’t you just double dip and increase your pension and take the job of worthless COP/City Manager.

    This city is so busy kissing behinds and make behind door handshakes, bad money decisions it is beyond control.

  2. Baloney-Fagone not only runs the police department from behind the scenes, but has Chuckee cringing at City Hall.  She wields power unlike any other dictator and no one challenges her authority. The recent failure of the community panel to select what they desired, played right into the scenario that she hoped would occur. She can now go forward and select whom she wants, with no questions asked. How surprising that Chuckee publicly released to the public that he feels that a more qualifiable candidate is more apt to apply for the police chief’s job if the candidate is not brought before a community panel. Really Chuck, are you that stupid that you would think the public is not on to the fact that no one in their right mind will take on a chief’s job that you and Figone are going to direct?  I would think that the Citizens of San Jose would have awoken to the hokus-pokus that Reed and Figone are spewing! Case closed…you guys are out of time.

  3. Really, an interview panel made up of members of the community interviewed candidates for COP?  And the community also prepared the interview questions?

    In addition to being unnecessarily time-consuming, its also lame, and is nothing more than a feable PC-attempt to involve the community, especially those that represent clients that would seek out the services of an IPA at some point.

  4. This is what happens when you have a city manager, mayor, and city council run your police department (just like Oakland)….they know nothing about law enforcement, but for some reason think they are more knowlegeable than a law enforcement professional…..This mayor loves to compare San Jose with other surrounding cities, “its not as bad as…”;  “if we don’t do whatever I want, we’ll end up like…..”  san Jose has had TWO COPs tell the city , at a minimum, what it needs to be safe, but those recommendations have been ignored and the citizens have paid the price….It will get worse, not because of the taxpayers or police, but because of the arrogant ass*&^es that think they are smarter than everyone else…..Good Luck Chief Esquivel, you and your department will need it

  5. this shows what a joke this city is to the whole country, thank you Deb and Chuck and the rest of the clowns on council. 

    Why don’t you just assign the IPA as COP.  That way all of SJPD will leave and you can sub contract police services to the county.

    Sell the damn 92 million sub-station before it is totally moth balled.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *