Fresno Police Chief Returning to Oakland : Law enforcement: In his brief term, Joseph Samuels won high praise for openness and uprightness in a city with daunting crime problems. He will take over the top job of Bay Area force.

With this city reeling from record crime and struggling to hire 100 new officers, Fresno’s recently hired police chief announced Tuesday that he is leaving to become Oakland’s top officer.

Chief Joseph Samuels, 43, accepted the Oakland position Monday night less than two years after being named Fresno’s 15th police chief. The move is a homecoming for Samuels, who spent 17 years in the Oakland Police Department, rising to the rank of captain before taking the Fresno job in October, 1991.

“It’s Fresno’s loss and Oakland’s gain,” said Fresno Police Capt. L. H. McDaniel, a 33-year veteran. “He’s charismatic, a good leader and he realizes the importance of getting the community involved in the police process. We’re going to miss him.”

When Samuels was named Fresno’s first African-American police chief, it was widely greeted as the beginning of a new era in local law enforcement. The Fresno Police Department had been plagued by corruption throughout much of its 107-year history.

Until the late 1970s, according to federal and state investigators, Fresno police chiefs routinely schemed with vice lords, using payoffs to buy huge vineyards and horse ranches north of town. One chief landed in federal prison for tax evasion. Another retired after marrying the town’s biggest madam.

Though his time here was short, supporters say, Samuels proved to be unlike all the previous police chiefs. He refused to hobnob with his men, defying the department’s good-old-boy traditions.

He was hands-on and cooperative with the news media. In the aftermath of one sensational murder, he stood inside the victim’s home and led her family in prayer. He pledged that with God’s help his men would find the killers. A few days later, he made good on his promise.

“His whole idea of policing was to step outside these doors and involve the department in the community,” said Sgt. Rene Martin. “We’ve got the DARE (anti-drug) program now and the Police Activities League. He held regular meetings with a group of citizens who shared their concerns and fed him ideas.”

But Samuels also faced severe challenges. His reign saw Fresno set a new high for murders, 82 last year. Only Oakland, coincidentally, is more crime-ridden per capita among California’s big cities.

Despite these statistics and their capacity to alarm the public, Samuels had little room to respond. He had inherited one of the lowest-staffed departments in the state in ratio of officers to residents. Only 424 officers keep watch over a population of 400,000.

“We have about one officer for every 1,000 residents,” McDaniel said. “Nationally, the rate is double that.”

The City Council had been looking for ways to hire 100 new officers, but on Tuesday passed a new budget that includes enough money to hire only 47.