Floyd Mitchell, former Lubbock police chief, named chief of Oakland, Calif. PD

Oakland, California Mayor Sheng Thao on Friday announced former Lubbock Police Chief Floyd Mitchell will fill the Oakland Police Department's vacant chief spot.

Mitchell's appointment comes more than a year after Oakland's top police post became vacant as crime is on a steep incline in the California city of about 434,000, and just over five months after he stepped down from his role in Lubbock.

"Since 2019, violent crime has been on the rise and our police force fell to dangerously low levels," Thao said in a video announcing the appointment.

"Chief Mitchell is a strong leader and smart crime fighter who delivers results," she continued. "His commitment to proven crime reduction strategies, including proactive policing and strong officer-community engagement vaulted him to the top of the list."

More:Lubbock Police Chief Floyd Mitchell to resign after 4 years with city

Mitchell resigned from the Lubbock Police Department in September last year after four years of service to the city. He was LPD's 23rd chief and its first Black chief, coming to Lubbock in 2019 after four years as chief in Temple.

Before coming to Texas, Mitchell served for 25 years in the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. He is an Air Force veteran.

Neither Mitchell nor the City of Lubbock disclosed the reason behind Mitchell's September departure, but in a Friday interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Mitchell revealed he resigned after facing pushback for some decisions he made while in the Hub City.

"When you face resistance, sometimes it's just easier to say, 'Maybe it's just time to go in a different direction,'" he told the Chronicle.

Mitchell did not elaborate on specifics of the situation.

LPD came under fire in July last year after a KCBD investigative report revealed more than 30,000 calls to Lubbock 911 in 2022 were abandoned — meaning a dispatcher did not pick up the call before the caller hung up — out of about 183,000 calls total, or about 16%. Despite the missed calls, Mitchell reportedly reduced staffing at the police communications center from nine dispatchers per shift to seven in May last year.

Mayor Tray Payne and several Lubbock City Councilmembers called the statistics unacceptable at the time.

In his interview with the Chronicle, Mitchell admitted he didn't pay close enough attention to the situation, choosing instead to focus on how quickly calls were dispatched after they were answered.

"I learned from that situation, and I will definitely take what I learned when I come into Oakland," he said.

Mitchell expressed a desire to help transform the struggling Oakland PD, which has faced a revolving door of chiefs and been plagued with scandal in recent years, the Chronicle reported.

The City of Lubbock has yet to fill the police chief vacancy Mitchell's departure created, and retired Plano Chief Greg Rushin has served as an interim since late September. In an interview with the Avalanche-Journal Wednesday, Councilman Steve Massengale stressed the importance of finding a qualified candidate who can improve morale, which he said has been low at the department for years.

"We need the right person in that job to hold people accountable who break laws in our community, and we also need the right person to be able to lead our officers, because the wrong person quickly creates bad morale, especially in a law enforcement agency," said Massengale, who was first elected in 2016. "It's hard for (officers) to do the job we expect them to do in bad morale, and I've seen bad morale since I've been on the job."

City Manager Jarrett Atkinson said in late February his office was working through a review of applicants. The A-J on Friday reached out to the city to request an update on the search, but did not immediately hear back.

"Ultimately, when we get down to those people that are the finalists, they're going to be presented to the community … to have a chance to give us input and to ensure that we have that next leader that you need to take us forward," Atkinson said.