Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen a finalist for the top cop job in Oakland.

Could Seaside's possible loss be Oakland's possible gain?

At 6:30pm Thursday, Nov. 5, the Oakland Police Commission will host a virtual Town Hall, along with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, to interview four finalists for the chief's job at the Oakland PD.

Among those finalists: Seaside Police Chief Abdul Pridgen, who downplayed his position as a finalist. 

"Unless I am hired to be the Oakland Police Chief, I am here and doing my job," he says. "Being a finalist doesn't change my commitment to the city of Seaside."

In competing for the Oakland chief's job, he's going up against Oakland PD Deputy Chief LeRonne Armstrong; interim Deputy Chief Drennon Lindsey (who is married to Armstong, per a San Francisco Chronicle story about the finalists); and Jason Lando, a police commander in Pittsburgh.

As the Chronicle story stated, Oakland has run through 11 chiefs in the past 21 years, with four of those in and out within a span of nine days in 2016.

Pridgen joined the Seaside PD in 2018. He was born and raised in the Bronx and moved to Los Angeles before his senior year of high school, joining the Navy after he graduated so he could experience travel and life overseas. 

After leaving the Navy and working for a satellite communications company in Texas, he heard about an opening at the Fort Worth Police Department and began his career in law enforcement. He spent 25 years at the Fort Worth PD and ultimately rose to the position of assistant chief before being demoted to captain in 2017 after he was accused of leaking another officer's bodycam footage of a racially charged arrest. 

He left Fort Worth PD—which had about 1,600 officers—to join Seaside as chief, where he has about 53 officers under his command.

Seaside City Manager Craig Malin says he's aware that Pridgen is interviewing in Oakland—he provided a reference for him.

"I hope he stays but I can't require it," Malin says. "He's pretty skilled and it's not hard to see why Oakland is interested in him. A city the size of Oakland would benefit from his experience and skill set."

Malin interviewing for the city manager job in Fort Worth, so was aware of the culture Pridgen came from when he interviewed for the Seaside chief's job. He said that in Pridgen's short time in Seaside, he's supported the professional development of his staff and been supportive of community involvement in policing issues, noting that support included working with the community to ensure the safety of demonstrators protesting the police killing of George Floyd. 

In June, more than 1,000 people took to the streets in Seaside during that protest, which ended with a rally on the lawn of the Seaside City Hall and Police headquarters complex. Pridgen joined the protest, raising his fist in a sign of unity, and told reporters he didn't take offense at calls to drastically change policing: "I know policing has a very nasty history in this country, 400 years of it. We have to listen attentively and figure out, what do we need to do to change?"

Seaside Councilmember Jon Wizard, who raised the ire of the Seaside Police Officers' Association with calls to reallocate a portion of the city's police budget to youth and other programs, says he was impressed with Pridgen when he in 2018 attended the community presentation portion of his interview with the city and heard him talk about implicit bias and the relationship between police officers and the public.

"In the roughly 18 months since, I've heard from many residents—and I agree—that he has been a positive influence on our department, bringing about greater professionalism in the department and accountability in the officers' activities."

The Oakland Town Hall will be streamed via Zoom; a link will be forthcoming later this week.