Oakland native and Oakland Police Academy graduate Captain Fred Bobbitt of the Fremont Police Department is receiving an unprecedented amount of community support in his fight to continue implementing his “Community First” approach to policing in the Bay Area’s fourth largest city. 

Community outrage is growing and is being directed at Fremont City Manager Mark Danaj afterallegations that Danaj reportedly tried to push Bobbitt to retire in September 2020, just two months after Captain Bobbitt was recognized by the Chief of Police and the community for effectively managing peaceful social justice protests that occurred in Fremont after the killing of George Floyd.

Captain Bobbitt, 53, is a 35–year veteran of the Fremont Police Department who has managed to go his entire career without a single community complaint or disciplinary action.

Captain Bobbitt is widely recognized for training officers under his command to be “community friendly”to achieve the most effective results. In 2017. he founded the “Building Bridges” program in collaboration with the Fremont school district.

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The program allows each sixth-grade student to meet, interact and play games with officers as a way tobuild early trust. To date, 9,000 children and families have participated in what is considered a highly successful program.

Captain Bobbitt was also recognized for his work with faith–based institutions, including the Sikh community, the Muslim community, the Hindi community, the Christian community and multiple other faith denominations that serve Fremont’s large AAPI community. He was honored by former Assemblymember Kansen Chu as a community hero.

During a virtual town hall meeting in support of Captain Bobbitt on April 26, all 175 registration spots for the meeting were filled within seven days after the meeting was announced.

Responding to questions from the Post News Group, the City of Fremont sent a formal statement in an email on May 18, saying the city “is aware of an online town hall meeting that was held April 26, 2021 on behalf of Captain Fred Bobbitt.”

Though disagreeing with the allegations, the city said it could not comment on the specifics.  

“The meeting flyer and various forms of information circulating on this matter, contain many untrue statements. However, because this matter involves a personnel issue governed by the Memorandum of Understanding with the Fremont Police Managers’ Association (FPMA), the City will not comment on a confidential personnel matter involving Captain Bobbitt.”

According to a summary and timeline posted on the town hall flyer, City Manager Danaj allegedly attempted to force Captain Bobbitt out in a manner that would not have required the City Council and the Mayor to be notified.

After being presented with an offer to retire, Captain Bobbitt’s family, many of whom reside in East Oakland, encouraged him to reject the offer, which included his full union pension as a captain and a large undisclosed cash payout.

His family reinforced the need for his leadership and the need for him to continue leading reform in this critical moment of history. After his official refusal to retire, he was promptly reassigned to an office at the Animal Shelter away from contact with FPD officers, which many community members see as retaliation for his refusal to retire and for his insistence that his community–first approach be continued.

During the recent town hall meeting, the primary question posed by the community was: “Why.” in a moment in of history where the entire country is desperate for African American leadership in law enforcement and is demanding low–cost police reform;  the question was why would the Fremont City Manager want to force the retirement of the city’s longest serving  African American police officer and the city’s longest tenured Black employee.

During the town hall meeting, it was alleged that City Manager Danaj has had a questionable past in managing major personnel decisions. People pointed to news articles that said Danaj had been placed on administrative leave and terminated without cause from his post as City Manager of Manhattan Beach CA in January 2018.

In addition, in October 2018, he was the subject of a pension investigation during his brief employment in the Santa Clara City Manager’s Office (just prior to taking the job in Fremont).

According to Kirn Gill a longtime Fremont resident, “ Captain Bobbitt is an absolute legend and jewel, and the community will not stand for him to be treated this way, we need police leaders with his mentality and experience”.

According to Nick Austin who recently retired from the Fremont Police Department due to injury, ”…Captain Bobbitt was a liaison between the city administration and helped get me the doctors I needed  for my injury. Any time I was stressed or worried, Captain Bobbitt was there for my family. In my opinion Captain Bobbitt is the leadership at the PD, and I considered him not only my boss but a great friend and a great person.

“I think it’s extremely disappointing that Captain Bobbitt is being treated with absolute disrespect after over 35 years of dedicated service for an organization of which he loves.”

According to a letter written to the Fremont City Council and Mayor from Yulanda Williams, president of Officers for Justice,  3rd vice president of San Francisco NAACP and a lifetime member of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), “Leadership and logic need to prevail here. This moment in history has no place for the personal agenda or politics of the Fremont City manager.”

During virtual town hall meetings, calls for the City Manager to be fired came from multiple community leaders.

The city’s formal  email response to the community did indirectly defend Captain Bobbitt’s transfer and reply to allegations against City Manager Denaj.

“The Police Chief is solely responsible for all police department appointments” and that Captain Bobbitt was moved to the “Professional Support Services Division,” where he is in commend of 80 full-time employees,  “the second largest division in the department,” the email said.

While the city “can’t specifically comment” on City Manager Danaj’s personnel matter in Manhattan Beach or the pension investigation, it is known that his employment contract was ended “without cause,”  according to the cityemail, which posted links of several news articles quoting the City Manager in his own defense.

Below are several news articles related to the city’s manager’s past job performance.

Mia Lane

Posts by Mia Lane