Former OPD leader Floyd Mitchell is Fremont's new police chief

Former OPD leader Floyd Mitchell is Fremont's new police chief

Floyd Mitchell is Fremont's new police chief, KTVU has learned.

FREMONT, Calif. - Floyd Mitchell is Fremont's new police chief, KTVU has learned.

What we know:

After an inquiry on Thursday morning to the city about its decision, Fremont spokeswoman Geneva Bosques confirmed that following a "nationwide executive search, the City has selected Mr. Floyd Mitchell to be Fremont's next Police Chief."

She added: "Mr. Mitchell brings extensive experience and expertise in law enforcement to this role."

She said more information would be released in a more formal news release, following the completion of the hiring process.

Mitchell left the Oakland Police Department on Dec. 5, 2025, after 18 months on the job. 

The backstory:

Mitchell never stated publicly why he left, but observers noted that he was hired before Mayor Barbara Lee took office, and that he had regularly complained about having to deal with a more-than-20-year federal oversight of the Oakland Police Department. 

"The police oversight in Oakland doesn't exist in Fremont," said civil rights attorney Jim Chanin, who spearheaded the oversight in Oakland more than 20 years ago. "He was very clear he didn't like all the oversight. He didn't want to be here and I'm glad he's gone." 

Mitchell was hired in March 2024 by now-ousted Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who had fired the former police chief, Leronne Armstrong, as one of her first acts in office.

Mitchell came to the Bay Area from Lubbock, Texas, where he led that department from 2019 until September 2023. He left his position in Lubbock after the department was faulted for an increasing number of unanswered 911 calls. He spent 25 years as a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri. 

Mitchell will replace Fremont interim chief Sean Washington, whose base pay is nearly $370,000 a year, which is roughly the same as what Mitchell made as Oakland's chief. 

Washington announced in June that he planned to retire in August from the Fremont Police Department, where he had worked for 30 years. He has been serving as interim chief while the city manager found a replacement. 

The Fremont City Council did not weigh in on the matter.

Mayor Raj Salwan, who at first did not know that Mitchell had been chosen, explained that Fremont has a council-manager form of government, and the city manager makes that determination. 

Yajing Zhang, Fremont's vice mayor, said she talked to the city manager and said the city needed to "look for someone who understands Fremont's culture, and Fremont's problems and Fremont's challenges.

Fremont is the Bay Area's fourth-largest city – bigger than Oakland – but has no federal oversight, no civilian police commission that can hire or fire a chief, and a much lower crime rate. 

Still, residents, like a man named Jazhad, said it feels like there has been an uptick in violence.

"Right now, we are listening, you know, hearing about the gunshots," he said. "So we are just worried about the safety of Fremont and everything."

In terms of oversight, Lisa Hill, a professor in the California State University East Bay Department of criminal justice administration and social work, said for Mitchell, "it's kind of like a fresh start."

"He gets to deal with some community issues and not have this oversight over his head," she said.