The Spokesman-Review

Former Spokane police chief Anne Kirkpatrick has been chosen to lead the Oakland, Calif., police department.

Oakland has been without a police chief for seven months, and Kirkpatrick will be charged with restoring confidence in an agency reeling from a sex scandal involving officers. She will be Oakland’s first female police chief.

Kirpatrick led the Spokane Police Department through a turbulent period from September 2006 to January 2012, when the city and the department were dealing with the fallout from the death of Otto Zehm. She had strong support from city officials and police brass, but clashed with the police union over her discipline of officers.

After leaving Spokane, Kirkpatrick was hired as chief deputy at the King County Sheriff’s Office and retired in 2014. She spent time as a Seattle-based instructor with a private organization that contracts with the FBI for training services.

In June, she was named to lead the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards, where she took on a newly-created job implementing recommendations from the city’s Police Accountability Task Force. Her departure came as a surprise to the city, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

Kirkpatrick enters a department that has seen turmoil since a sex scandal became public in June.

Prosecutors have charged seven current and retired San Francisco Bay Area officers for their alleged involvement with a teen, including several from Oakland. Two officers have been charged with having sex with the teen.

Three Oakland police chief and four officers have been fired or quit since.