Emeryville City Manager Carolyn Lehr announced today that the city has picked current Sausalito Chief Jennifer Tejada to be Emeryville’s next Chief pending formal acceptance and standard procedures. Tejada will replace interim Chief Dave Hall and 16 year Chief Ken James who retired on June 30th of this year.
Tejada, 52, has served as the Chief of Police of Sausalito since 2011 and was a Captain within the Novato PD where she worked for sixteen years prior to that. Tejada rose through the ranks at the Novato PD, achieving the rank of lieutenant in 2004, and then was promoted to captain in 2007. Tejada was the highest-ranking female police officer in Marin County during her tenure with Novato and was Marin County’s first female chief of police.
Tejada’s husband Eric is also in law enforcement and currently is a lieutenant with the University of California Police Department. They have two children.
As part of the selection process, the City reached out to the community through its newsletter to obtain input as to the “desired characteristics and qualities of the individual.” This input was to be provided to the decision makers and the recruitment panel that include Lehr and Council among others. The results of this community input have not yet been made public.
The official announcement awaits a successful background check and medical evaluation, which typically takes about a month. We are still awaiting formal word from the city and will update this post as new information becomes available.
[…] was recruited from the Sausalito PD in 2015 to take over for long time Emeryville Police Chief Ken James. Tejada became interested in policing […]