San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew elevated Deputy Chief Nicole Jones yesterday to assistant chief, moving a seasoned insider into a high-profile role that had lingered open during a broader shake-up of the department's command staff. In the job, she will act as Lew's chief of staff and oversee administration, risk management, strategic communications, community engagement, government affairs, and policy development, effectively serving as his second-in-command for day-to-day operations.
According to her department biography, Jones joined the San Francisco Police Department in 2007 and worked her way through patrol and investigative roles at the Ingleside and Tenderloin stations, as well as assignments in the Special Victims Unit and Internal Affairs. The biography also notes that she holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Announcing the promotion yesterday, Lew leaned on Jones's depth of experience, saying, "I am extremely grateful to have Nicole Jones as second-in-command of this department." The department added that the assistant chief position had been vacant for about six months while SFPD reworked its top-tier leadership, a shift first reported by SFGATE.
What the assistant chief will manage
In her new role, Jones is set to absorb the chief of staff portfolio and take charge of administration, risk management, strategic communications, community engagement, government affairs, and policy development, according to the department. That mix effectively links SFPD's internal operations with its public-facing work, making the assistant chief a key connector between the police brass, City Hall, and neighborhood organizations, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
A fast promotion amid a command reshuffle
Lew was sworn in earlier this month after a nationwide search, and his early moves have already begun to remake SFPD's upper ranks, according to NBC Bay Area. Jones's promotion follows internal reorganizations that started under Interim Chief Paul Yep. During that period, she oversaw the SFPD academy following a recruit's fatal training incident and later made staffing changes at the training center, a sequence that drew scrutiny from local outlets including the San Francisco Standard.
Event planning experience and what to watch next
The department's announcement and supporting materials also spotlighted Jones's event-planning résumé, noting that she helped lead security planning for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in 2023 and the NBA All-Star Game in 2025. Those assignments were highlighted as evidence of her operational chops, as reported by SFGATE. City leaders, community advocates and the Police Commission are expected to closely watch how she steers staffing, training and public communications as Lew rolls out his priorities on recruitment and street-level enforcement.
