OAKLAND — The embattled Oakland police chief abruptly announced a medical retirement Wednesday, hours before a team of consultants — working for former Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton — was scheduled to lay out a crime-reduction plan for the state's most violent city.
Chief Howard Jordan's announcement came one week after a compliance director appointed by a federal judge to oversee significant areas of Police Department operations issued a scathing report that was critical of management.
A U.S. District Court judge had appointed the compliance director — one step short of a receiver — in December, 10 years into the department's effort to comply with a civil settlement agreement relating to racial profiling and inappropriate use of force by officers.
In his report, Tom Frazier said supervisors often failed to intervene in improper officer behavior and failed to thoroughly investigate allegations of officer misconduct. Executive leadership, he said, "has permitted members of the organization to believe that the behaviors … are both tolerated and acceptable."
The federal court had given Frazier the power to recommend the removal of top department officials, but city officials declined to say Wednesday whether he had pressed for Jordan's departure.
Oakland Police Officers Assn. President Barry Donelan said Jordan called him Wednesday and shared the news of his condition and his retirement.
"He is ill," Donelan said. "We all wish Chief Jordan and his family the best moving forward."
At an afternoon news conference, City Administrator Deanna Santana declined to discuss Jordan's medical condition, citing privacy law, but said his medical leave had already begun and retirement would soon follow.
Assistant Chief Anthony Tiribio was elevated to acting chief and a national search for a new leader will be conducted, she said.
Mayor Jean Quan, who met Jordan years ago when he was a young lieutenant in charge of school safety, said she admired his commitment to youth and was "very sad to see him leave."
Jordan had been on the force for 23 years when he took the helm as interim chief in the fall of 2011 — just weeks before Occupy Oakland protests erupted near City Hall and images of officers lobbing tear gas and other projectiles into a largely peaceful crowd made international news.
He was named permanent chief in February 2012. As he moved to discipline officers for improper use of force during Occupy protests and inch forward on compliance with the settlement agreement, he was also forced to contend with a department that lost a fourth of its force over five years.
Earlier this year the city hired Massachusetts-based Strategic Policy Partnership — which brought Bratton in as a sub-consultant — to devise crime-reduction plans that call for smarter policing and more community input.
The Bratton Group had drafted a short-term plan and was set to release it with Jordan at a midday Wednesday news conference.
It was abruptly canceled after the chief announced he was stepping down.
"This decision has been difficult but necessary," he wrote in a brief mid-morning letter to Oakland police employees. "Through my 24 years of wearing an OPD badge and uniform I have emulated the department's core values: Honesty, Respect and Integrity — values I have observed in all of you. I know that you and the department will carry on these values to generations to come."
The plan will now be released Thursday.
lee.romney@latimes.com
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