Alex Fagan
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Alex Emanuel Fagan (2 November 1950 – 8 November 2010) was the Chief of the San Francisco Police Department from March 2003 until January 2004.


Biography

Fagan was born in
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and raised in the tiny (1950 population 1,147) East Bay community of
Pinole, California Pinole (Spanish for "cornmeal") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. The population was 18,390 at the 2010 census. History The name derives from "pinole", a Nāhuatl word for a kind of flour made from the seeds of ...
, attended schools in
Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council.
. From 1968 to 1971, Fagan attended Contra Costa College in San Pablo, and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in criminology. He joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1973 as a patrol officer. He was promoted to Inspector in 1979, while also earning a Masters' from
San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...
. Fagan worked in the Narcotics unit for 13 years and later in the Homicide detail, was assigned to an organized-crime task-force, ran the Northern Station, and as Captain was the department's chief financial officer. Fagan was also on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Police Officers' Association. He was awarded three silver and five bronze medals of valor. In 1976, he helped save 30 men from a fire at a
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. In 1979, he swam 200 yards into San Francisco Bay to save a suicidal woman. He was appointed by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown as acting police chief in March 2003 and chief in August 2003. In January 2004, newly elected Mayor
Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California fr ...
removed Fagan as chief and put him in charge of the city's emergency services office. Fagan died in November 2010, collapsing while walking his dog on a street in
London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
. Fagan had moved to London to join his partner who had recently been transferred to Britain.


Problem behaviors

In 1990, Fagan was suspended by the SFPD after an inebriated altercation with several members of the
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; in 2001 he was again suspended after he left the scene of a 2000 automobile accident and was accused of DUI. Fagan was investigated by
Walnut Creek, California Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek ser ...
police in connection with the 1988 murder of SFPD officer Lester Garnier. Among the issues raised were his purchases of an expensive home and automobiles well in excess of those his SFPD pay would warrant, membership in the exclusive
Olympic Club The Olympic Club is an sports club, athletic club and private social club in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. First named the "San Francisco Olympic Club", it is the oldest sports club, athletic club in the United States. Established o ...
, and his relationship with a female
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agent. In November 2002, while Fagan was a deputy chief, two men reported that they had been attacked by a group of off-duty police officers, including Fagan's son, who was a rookie with the department. Fagan was charged by a grand jury with conspiring to cover up the incident, which became known as "
Fajitagate Fajitagate was a series of legal and political incidents in San Francisco that began with a street fight outside a neighborhood bar between three off-duty San Francisco Police officers and two other local residents over a bag of fajitas, leading ...
." Fagan was ultimately cleared and the charges dismissed.


References


External links


San Francisco Chronicle article on the trial"Father and Son at Center of San Francisco Police Storm" ''Los Angeles Times'' March 17, 2003
10 November 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fagan, Alex 1950 births 2010 deaths People from Richmond, California San Francisco Police Department chiefs University of California, Berkeley alumni jv:Alex Emanuel Fagan min:Alex Emanuel Fagan