May 12, 2021
Na’Keia Warren: What influenced your decision to pursue a career in law enforcement?
Bisa French: I was born in San Francisco, California and moved at a young age to the city of San Pablo, which is right next door to Richmond. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was still prevalent in the early 1980s in San Pablo. I remember walking to school one day with my older brother and seeing “KKK” spray painted on a sidewalk and fence. We were probably six and eight-years-old at the time. I felt so unsafe. My family and I didn’t have personal, negative experiences that others had with the police department. I always thought the police kept you safe. I asked my brother, ‘What does KKK mean?’ He told me that there were people who wanted to kill us because we were Black, and they wanted to hang us from trees. ‘Why? I didn’t do anything. Why don’t they like me? If they’re bad people, how come they’re not in jail?’ I thought jail was a place for bad people. That was my earliest memory and the first time I remember thinking, ‘When I get older, I’ll be a police officer and I’ll put bad people like that in jail. I want to help people, and don’t want them to feel unsafe. I’m going to be the savior!’ Obviously through the years, my thoughts about being a police officer and savior have changed.
After high school I had a life-changing experience; I got pregnant. I had always thought about the field of law enforcement, but quite frankly, I was a little scared to try it. I didn’t have other people in my family that I could go to for guidance. I watched “COPS” on TV, so that was my world of policing. (COPS is an American television program that premiered in 1989). I had always been interested in being a police officer, and needed to support myself and my son. I decided, ‘It’s now or never. Let me see if this will work.’ I did and it’s worked out for me.
NW: How did you become a police officer in Richmond, California?
BF: I applied with several different departments around the Bay Area, and Richmond is the one that picked me up first. At first, I was hesitant to work in Richmond because I grew up in San Pablo and Hercules, and attended schools with most people from Richmond. I was taking classes at Contra Contra College in San Pablo and had a professor that was a Richmond Police Officer. He encouraged me to apply for Richmond and do some ride-alongs, which I did. Sure enough, Richmond picked me up.
NW: What is the process for becoming a police officer? Have the requirements changed since you first entered the field?
BF: The requirements haven’t changed a lot since I entered the field. Most departments require that you have some level of education post high school. In some cases, military service is also transferrable. You can either put yourself through a police academy, (which means you’re not sponsored and paying for it on your own), or you can apply with police departments, which is what I did. If the police department hires you, they’ll put you through the police academy, a six-month program. Like most jobs, there is an oral interview. A physical agility test usually consists of jumping over a 6-foot fence, dragging a 220-pound dummy, and running a certain distance within a certain amount of time. There is an extensive personal history questionnaire and polygraph examination. You cannot have any felony offenses. Your financial records are also reviewed to evaluate how you manage your finances. Our hiring practices have changed a bit for evaluating one’s history of drug offenses, including marijuana and Driving Under the Influence (DUI). After the background check, there is a Chief’s interview where I meet each candidate to determine whether they’re a good fit for Richmond. I’m very specific and intentional about hiring people that will be engaged with the community. If I extend a conditional job offer, there’s two more steps: a psychological evaluation and physical examination. It’s an extensive process, as it should be. As we can see with incidents across the nation, it still doesn’t mean that we capture everything with those exams.
NW: For those who are unaware, I’d like to walk the path of your professional trajectory. Your career with the Richmond Police Department began in 1998 as a Police Officer and the following promotions ensued: Sergeant (2006), Lieutenant (2011) Captain (2013), Assistant Chief (2016), Interim Chief (2019), and Chief (2020). You were the first Afro-Latina Captain and youngest to hold the position (2013). In 2020, you became the first female Chief in Richmond’s Police Department since its 1909 commencement. While being “the first” is historical and highly commendable, it also highlights disenfranchisement of others who were never acknowledged or considered. Are hiring practices for women shifting in law enforcement?
BF: Women are now in fields where they’ve been historically excluded, and are less fearful to enter law enforcement. The higher ranks are still dominated by men, especially White men in this particular field. I remember being told as a young officer that law enforcement wasn’t for women. I was told that from men in my department. Though things are shifting, it’s still difficult for women like me who are in executive positions. I still enter the room where I’m “the only one” at conferences and meetings. I’m the only Black woman in the room, the only one at the table. We are turning a corner. The younger generation is less fearful, and I think they’re willing to take a lot more on.
NW: You served on the Family Justice Leadership team, and developed the West Contra Costa Family Justice Center in Richmond in 2015. What was the catalyst for your leadership?
BF: When I started in law enforcement in 1998, our response to domestic violence and sexual assault was poor. As police officers, our approach was like placing a band-aid on a gunshot wound, which wasn’t helpful. When responding to domestic violence calls earlier in my career, officers broke up the fight and left as quickly as possible. That wasn’t helping women be successful; I say women, but sometimes there were men which was rare. When I heard about the opportunity to work with the [West Contra Costa] Family Justice Center, it felt like the solution I knew we needed, but didn’t know could exist.
I had worked as a Detective and Detective Sergeant in our domestic and sexual violence unit, and felt that I had to make this work for Richmond. Our community needed a resource where women could go and get things done on their time at a one-stop shop. Contra Costa County is really spread out. If we arrested somebody on a domestic violence call, the victim would have to go throughout the county to get services. You have to go to Martinez for a restraining order and Concord for a court advocate. The resources were so spread out and inconvenient for people in Richmond. A lot of people don’t have the ability to spend their day or money riding the bus, or trying to get transportation to get all of these different resources. How do you expect them to get out of the situation if we don’t have the resources? How can we have a healthy community? Interpersonal violence is important to me because I’ve seen a lot of it throughout my career, and always think about how it could have been prevented. We need communities that can thrive instead of just working to survive. The more resources we provide to the community, the more we’re going to be able to curtail violent crime. If people are getting what they need in their households, they’re less likely to turn to violence, gangs, drugs, and other means to escape and survive.
NW: What impact did COVID-19 have on domestic violence victims who were quarantined with their abuser(s)? Did it effect your department’s intervention efforts?
BF: There was an increase in domestic violence calls, so we worked with the [West Contra Costa] Family Justice Center, actively referring and taking people there. I was very concerned about domestic violence and child abuse issues once people were locked up in the house together. We also see an increase in domestic violence calls every year during the holidays when people get together who haven’t gathered in a long time. Everything’s good at first, and then people start talking and things come up which causes an argument. We experience this every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
NW: You were officially appointed Richmond Police Chief in August 2020 – five months after Contra Costa County’s shelter-in-place ordinance due to COVID-19. Officers have direct contact with the public and are exempt from social distancing. How has this global pandemic changed your work approach on the frontline?
BF: There were a lot of changes that we had to make due to COVID-19. I wanted to keep my officers and the community safe since we come into contact with so many people. We informed the public of the changes, reviewed our calls for service, and determined which could be managed by phone or referred for online submission. We took precautions and provided appropriate gear for our officers, but also realized that our business is to provide service to our community; we never stopped doing that. It came with a cost though; we lost a sergeant due to COVID-19, a person I had worked with my entire career who’d been there before me. It was a difficult thing for our department to handle. COVID-19 has definitely had a major effect on the department. Over the year, we’ve learned how to navigate through it, but it’s thrown us a few curveballs. It taught us how to do things differently through technology.
NW: Gentrification is another pandemic that has infected Richmond over time. Side effects include the displacement of Richmond’s pioneer families, closure of small businesses, and erasure of legacy, history and memory. What is the current state of communal affairs from your perspective?
BF: Gentrification has impacted Richmond a lot. Historically, Richmond was Black; now it’s Latino and it’s had a different effect. Unfortunately, a lot of families can’t afford to stay here, and we don’t have that legacy that we had years before. Gentrification has pushed out generations of families with history. To know that housing prices are so ridiculous, that you can’t afford to stay in the city that you grew up in is really hard. I really see the change.
There is a Reimagining Public Safety Task Force that was formed by the [Richmond] City Council in 2020. Many people on the task force are of Latin descent and people that have come to Richmond over the last 10 – 20 years. They have been working together the last eight months to reimagine public safety, and rolled out recommendations to the City Council. The Task Force was formed after George Floyd’s death on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A lot of their recommendations are good, including giving money to different service providers to provide additional resources to the community. But, they also want to defund the police department, and voted to defund the police department by $10.3 million dollars, which will result in a significant loss of officers within the department. While recommendations were being discussed, some community members commented on how the police department hurt communities of color. Remarks like, ‘Police don’t provide safety and don’t prevent crime’ were about things that have happened nationally rather than in Richmond. That was really frustrating. Richmond Police Department hasn’t really been engaged with the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, and maybe that’s our fault that we haven’t found a way. They don’t seem open to forming a partnership or a relationship for us to work together; their mindset is that police are bad and we need to get rid of them.
We’ve spent the last 10 – 15 years really developing our community policing program and building trust with our community. I think that’s how we were really able to reduce crime in Richmond during that timeframe, and we don’t want to lose that momentum. It was frustrating for people not to acknowledge what we’ve done in Richmond because we’ve come a long way. I know through stats that we are not the police department that some people are painting us out to be; we’ve reduced crime. When you talk to the historical families in the community, they notice the change over time. They say, ‘We used to have the Cowboys and the Jump Out Boys (units within police departments). That’s not how you guys are anymore and we appreciate that.’ I also receive acknowledgment at NAACP meetings. I know that we’ve done harm in the community, but I’ve worked my entire career to right those wrongs, to make sure I put policies and procedures in place so that we don’t get back to that place. I want to ensure that we’re doing the right thing for the right reasons, and working in partnership with the community. We’re not perfect, and there is always room for improvement. It’ll be nice to get back to a point where we can have more personal interactions and engagement with the community again.
NW: Do you ever feel conflicted in your career choice?
BF: I’ve felt very conflicted over the years. As I stated earlier, I didn’t have negative experiences with the police. As a young officer, I saw instances of discriminatory behavior, inequities, and police brutality. Hearing other stories and seeing social injustice nationwide, I have often questioned, ‘How can I continue to wear this uniform, knowing that it is harmful to communities of color?’ I feel that God put me in this uniform for a reason. Not only did He put me in this uniform, but He’s put me in positions that can actually have an impact on change. I don’t think that was by chance; I think that was by His divine design. Even when I am challenged as Police Chief, which I am often, I’m here for a reason and I have to see it through. I stay conflicted because these incidents continue to happen. How can we stop this from happening? I’m in this position, and it might even happen in my community.
I don’t think the community understands the constraints that a Police Chief has when dealing with some of these issues, especially communities of color. Now that there’s a Chief of color, the perception of some community members is, ‘Why aren’t you doing something? You’re just like all the other ones’, or ‘Now that we have a Black Chief, she’s going to make everything right.’ I am trying to do something – I’m doing everything that I can. How can I stop a system that’s been in place for hundreds of years? I cannot, but I will work to dismantle it, brick by brick if I need to. That’s what I’m doing, but it’s a hard position to be in. The expectations from everyone are difficult to manage.
NW: As a mother of three, how are your children responding to your career in law enforcement and police brutality nationwide?
BF: It’s been very interesting lately, especially over the last couple of years. Early on, I thought they were proud. A police officer was still a profession that was highly valued. Since the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014 and other incidents, people don’t like police officers. My children now feel that from their friends at school and people talking in general about the police. They’re less willing to share that their mother is a police officer. That’s hurtful because I want them to be proud of me. I think they are, but I feel like they can’t express it because of other people’s opinions. My children’s experiences have been positive with police officers. I’ve brought them to work, and they see other officers on a regular basis. I work with a lot of great officers, and they’ve been able to spend time with them. They don’t see us as police officers; they see us as people, which is how we want to be seen.
Other people may have negative experiences, especially kids. If mom and dad are fighting and we’re kicking in the door and dragging dad off to jail, what is their perception of the police? Some kids may understand, but if they really love their dad, they’re perception is, ‘The police just dragged my dad off to jail, and now I don’t get to see him anymore.’ It is so important for us to be seen and to engage in the public in a different way that’s not always enforcement-driven. That’s why we are always at community events; we want kids to see us in a different light and as everyday people.
Having “The Talk” about law enforcement with your kids is an unfortunate and realistic rite of passage in Black households. I have a 27-year-old son who’s a brainiac, and is older and wiser beyond his years. He’ll read a book in one day. This year he applied for law school and let me read his essays. He referenced his positive experiences growing up with a mother and stepfather who are police officers, but noted that we never had The Talk with him. He questioned our decision after seeing all these other incidents of police brutality. I never felt that he would be in danger with the police; maybe it was because of my colleagues. I questioned why my husband and I never had The Talk with him, and it was because we never considered him to be unsafe. His essay actually hurt a little bit because he was very direct. My son wants to pursue a career in social justice, possibly as a public defender, and feels that I’m part of the system that created these injustices. That hurt me, but I also understood.
My middle child, my daughter, is also going to college next year and wrote an essay about her parents being in law enforcement. Her perspective was a bit different. She grew up around police officers and didn’t have any negative experiences. The police officers that she’s encountered growing up have been really good people. Then, she goes to school and hears all these terrible stories about people hating police. We also talked to my daughter about how to appropriately respond because she’s driving now. She feels that people need to hear each other out, and have an open mind about what police officers do. There needs to be some reform, but every police officer’s behavior doesn’t align with how they’re being portrayed.
My youngest son, my 12-year-old, is militant. His perception is, ‘I’m a Black man! Black Power! Why are you stopping me? What did we do?’ We’ve already had The Talk with him because he’s the one that will pop off. I think it’s personality-based with each child. My older son follows the rules; my youngest son pushes the limit. It’s so interesting because they each have a different perspective.
NW: What advice would you offer to those who haven’t had The Talk with their loved ones?
BF: Comply with what the officer is saying. Officers are people too, so if they’re stopping you, most of the time they have a valid reason. If they don’t have a valid reason, they have a legal reason to stop you – even for something as minor as a tail light. The officer wants to go home and you want to go home, and there’s always mechanisms to address things at a later time. If they ask for your license and registration, give them your license and registration. When you don’t comply, that gives officers more authority to take more action against you. If you become the focal point, the focus will be on your actions versus the actions of the officer. You can file a complaint afterward if you feel that you were stopped unnecessarily. When you file a complaint, we can investigate and determine if the officer did something wrong. Comply now. Complain later.
NW: How do you manage work-life balance?
BF: That’s the difficult thing. I don’t know that I actually have that part down. I work way more than I should, and that comes at the expense of my family. I’ve tried to be better about it, but it’s a constant struggle for me. I try to recognize what’s really important and be present for those moments, especially for my kids. My son plays basketball, so I try to make it to all of his games. When my daughter played volleyball, I tried to make it to all of her games. It was really difficult missing birthday parties, holidays, and special occasions with my family. I try to focus on things that really matter to them, but there are times when I just can’t be there, especially now as a Chief. That’s one reason why I continue to promote others. I don’t have the answer to that yet. I still struggle with keeping that work-life balance because there’s so many competing obligations.
When you do have those moments, what does self-care look like for Bisa?
BF: I’m trying to figure some new stuff out. Normally, I would’ve said shopping – I’d go spend some money. Spending time with my family also calms me. I enjoy walking. I’ve been trying to get into mindfulness and meditation, but that hasn’t worked yet. My brain just keeps going. I keep thinking about everything I need to do, and why am I sitting here? Lately, it’s been gardening because I’m trying to save money. I have two kids that are going to college! We’re preparing our backyard for my daughter’s graduation party. I feel a sense of tranquility back there. I can just focus and dig in the dirt. Gardening has helped tremendously.
Images courtesy of Bisa French