Some hoped for better from Sacramento’s first Black PD chief. Was that his fault or ours?
READ MORE
Sacramento’s Police Chief
Sacramento named the city’s first woman to lead the police department on Dec. 10, 2021. As Kathy Lester steps into the new role, police Chief Daniel Hahn talks about his retirement in an interview with The Bee.
Expand All
Sacramento police chief speaks of equity, protests and death threats as he’s set to retire
Some hoped for better from Sacramento’s first Black PD chief. Was that his fault or ours?
Video: Retiring police Chief Daniel Hahn talks crime, death threats, special moments
Sacramento names first woman to lead police department. Who is new Chief Kathy Lester?
The hope that greeted Daniel Hahn as the first Black police chief in Sacramento history is far different from the somber reflection that accompanies his retirement after the last four years of unrest and disruption experienced by Hahn’s hometown.
Hahn’s historic ascension had symbolized a new day in policing in Sacramento as he was sworn-in to be the 45th police chief of Sacramento. But that hope was shattered mere months later when Hahn’s officers shot and killed an unarmed Stephon Clark, triggering national headlines and emotional unrest on Sacramento’s streets.
Everything changed after that for Hahn, his city, his department, and Hahn’s relationships with ardent supporters — myself included.
Hahn pretty much cut me off after Clark, and that is neither here nor there. But it turned out to reflect a larger reality, a needle popping the expectations of many when Hahn became chief.
Here was this endearing, charismatic man raised in Oak Park, committed to community, who would remake how this department lacking in diversity would interact with communities suspicious of Sac PD for good reason.
That didn’t really happen. As he leaves, Hahn is being praised as a stabilizing force by supporters who use the same phrase to describe what they view as Hahn’s legacy: He “got us through” the last four years of unrest, including the protests over the murder of George Floyd by the police.
“Had (Hahn) not been there, had he not had so many connections in the community and been so popular, we might have had more challenges than we did during (the Clark and Floyd) protests,” said Derrell Roberts, a North Sacramento youth counselor, and a long-time friend of Hahn.
“We didn’t experience buildings burning to the ground the way they did in other cities,” he said.
Cares for his community
To give Hahn all the credit for Sacramento not going up in flames is a stretch. This community has shown restraint in its darkest hours for generations.
But Hahn does care deeply for his community. Throughout his tenure, he did speak words of reconciliation and social justice that were uncommon coming from the mouth of a Sacramento police chief.
“Our community is crying out for change,” Hahn said after Clark’s killing. “I see a department and a City Council brave enough to say we can do better and willing to do the hard work to get there.”
But Hahn always stopped short of righteous sentences if they came too close to reflecting honestly on the actions of officers working under him.
Hahn did fire a police officer for killing a Black man before Hahn was chief. But once he was in office, Hahn backed his troops, reinstated the cops who killed Clark, lobbied to keep a choke-hold that city officials eventually forbade cops from using, emotionally distanced himself from people who had hoped and expected something more from him.
That’s where Hahn drew the line and it was probably unrealistic of us to have expected, because of his race and background, something different.
Does a police chief of any color ultimately have to be blue? It appears the answer is “yes” and that is how the hope Hahn embodied ran headlong into reality.
The love and joy showered on Hahn when he was sworn in before a packed ballroom at Sacramento State, his alma mater, have given way to death threats and harsh criticism for the actions of his officers.
Neither Hahn nor his family deserve this. That someone who has given so much to his community should be worried for his and his family’s safety is sad and wrong.
From praise to disappointment
Before he became chief, people always liked Hahn — even if they didn’t like his department.
As he was rising through the ranks of Sac PD, Hahn had been able to separate himself from the least heroic aspects of policing throughout his career. He did so by presenting himself to the Sacramento community as the charismatic charmer. He put a handsome face on the ugly side of policing and set himself apart from colleagues who inspired mistrust in diverse communities like Oak Park, where Hahn grew up.
Hahn was the anti-cop in Sacramento until he became the top cop.
Then Hahn seemed powerless to stop his own troops from arresting 84 people in East Sacramento who were protesting the lack of justice after Clark’s killing and were swept up by a department force that seemed bent on domination instead of deescalation.
“Many faith leaders had been working with law enforcement to say ‘when this day comes, we want to do it differently,’ said the Rev. Mary Westfall, a pastor with the Presbytery of Sacramento, after she and others were rounded up by cops in East Sacramento.
“I looked him in the face and said, ‘Chief Hahn, in a few days, we’re going to be facing each other in different circumstances. Remember what we’ve done here. Remember who these people are that your law enforcement (agents) will be looking at,’” she said.
The mass arrests, Westfall said, were “a total breach of faith.”
What Hahn offered instead of severe accountability for officers who killed Clark seemed performative to some. He supported a different foot-pursuit policy of suspects after Hahn’s guys chased Clark into the backyard of his grandmother, cornered him, and then shot him to death. Hahn also called on California State Attorney General Xavier Becerra to investigate the Clark killing, which was lauded as transparent until Becerra rubber-stamped official investigations.
“I would describe myself as disappointed in (Hahn),” said Flojaune Cofer, an epidemiologist, and a police reform advocate. “That may be unfair but that’s the burden of being a Black person in a position of authority. We expect more.”
Cofer acknowledges that she has no idea about the extent to which Hahn, a Black man, had to fight against the culture of mostly white and para-military institutions like the Sacramento Police.
“Maybe if I did know about the forces that Hahn was dealing with internally I would be impressed,” she said.
But as it stands, Cofer and others don’t see Hahn as someone who did enough to combat “the power dynamic between police and the Black community, communities of color and homeless communities.”
She cites the sweep of homeless campers on Commerce Circle last week by police as “really awful.”
‘Big shoes to fill’
Howard Chan, the city manager who hired Hahn, said people should ultimately blame him more than Hahn for the sweeps and other actions because Hahn reports to Chan.
“I will tell you that I am over the moon pleased with the job he has done as chief,” Chan said. “Things have been very contentious, controversial but I cannot think of another person fit in at the right time, had the right connections all the way around.”
Chan said he was most proud Hahn preaching restraint as protests grew heated and sometimes violent after George Floyd’s death.
“Emotions were running high, it would have been easy to pile on more offices but Daniel decided to let things play out,” Chan said. “He said if we start forcing things we could make it worse. People don’t get to see that or hear that but I was super proud.”
Hahn will be succeeded by Kathy Lester, the first woman to become the chief of the Sacramento Police.
Chan said Hahn will leave “big shoes to fill.” Chan said Hahn has told him that he isn’t as sure about how he will be remembered.
Hahn leaves as crime is rising again in Sacramento, after one of his officers was killed in the line of duty, after lawsuits and protests, and violence. Hahn seems a more somber version of the man he was on that happy day he was sworn in.
Maybe Hahn feels as let down by his city as some feel let down by him? If he does, he’s keeping it to himself, doing his job, a cop to the end. People might disagree about what Hahn’s tenure might have been, but he should be thanked for his service and dedication.
History handed Daniel Hahn a fraught time to be the first Black police chief in Sacramento.
This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
