Thao said she looked at the totality of the situation and said she made her decision to terminate Armstrong because she had lost confidence in the chief.
She said her decision was not disciplinary. But she declined to discuss the reasons behind her decision because Armstrong’s dismissal was a personnel matter.
The mayor said she would work with the police commission to find a successor to Armstrong, who was fired two years and a week after he was hired by her predecessor Libby Schaff.
Thao announced the decision to terminate Armstrong at a press conference Wednesday afternoon at City Hall. It came before a Police Commission meeting to discuss Armstrong’s fate.
The 24-year veteran of OPD, Armstrong was born and raised in West Oakland. Recently, he and supporters had been demanding his immediate reinstatement. He is the third straight OPD chief to either be fired or forced to resign.
Earlier this week, an anonymous source leaked confidential reports detailing the independent investigations into the OPD’s handling of two instances of misconduct by Sergeant Michael Chung.
According to the investigators responsible for the published report, Police Chief Armstrong and members of his staff did, in fact, violate their duties.
The OPD has been under the supervision of a federal monitor for almost 20 years as a result of a series of scandals involving police brutality and corruption.
