From the Office of the District Attorney:
Martinez, Calif. – Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton announces today Arnold Threets is the new permanent Chief of Inspectors for the District Attorney’s Office. Chief Threets previously served as the Acting Chief and Assistant Chief of Inspectors. Prior to joining the DA’s Office in 2019, Chief Threets spent 25 years with the Richmond Police Department, retiring as a Captain in 2018.
“I have known Chief Threets since I was a judge in Richmond and he was a young detective. I was always impressed with his demeanor, candor, and commitment to justice. I have watched his career as he rose all the way through the ranks of the Richmond Police Department, retiring as a Captain. Arnold continues to help our Office modernize and embrace new technologies and strengthen our protocol investigations,” said DA Becton.
Biography of Chief Arnold Threets
Arnold is an experienced executive leader with almost 30 years of law enforcement experience. Prior to coming to the District Attorney’s Office, he spent the preceding 25 years with the Richmond Police Department where he served, managed, and lead various patrol, investigative, tactical, and administrative units. Arnold served with distinction, retiring from the Richmond Police Department as a Police Captain in November 2018.
Arnold has a strong operational background in field and investigative operations. This led to his selection as the founding Commander of RPD’s Special Investigative concept where he led the effort to reduce violent gang crime, by working closely with the City of Richmond’s Office of Neighborhood Safety on a community driven, police-involved, focused deterrence model of preventing violent gun crime. This approach has become a national model for reducing violent gun crime, albeit without alienating the community we’re sworn to protect.
He joined the District Attorney’s Office in June of 2019 as the Assistant Chief of Inspectors. Since coming to the Office, he’s played a key role in the development, training and implementation of DA Becton’s new Protocol investigative process. At the request of the Contra Costa County Chiefs of Police Association, he partnered with former Chief Assistant Venus Johnson to train County law enforcement personnel on the changes to the law regarding the use of deadly force, as well as the updates to our internal investigative process.
While at RPD, he developed an appreciation for the role technology could play in keeping our communities safe. He led RPD’s transition to a new computer aided dispatch (CAD)/Records Management System (RMS), as well as their adoption of Axon body worn cameras. This interest and experience with technology made him a natural fit to lead the Office’s expansion of the use of Evidence.com with our law enforcement partners throughout the County.
Arnold considers himself to be the ultimate ‘late bloomer’ in that he didn’t finish his formal education until he was in his 40’s. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice Management from The Union Institute and University in Ohio and a Master’s Degree in Criminology, Law and Society from UC Irvine. He graduated from CA POST Command College Class 56 and the Senior Management Institute for Policing (SMIP) Class 66.
He is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corps and he and his wife, Tessa, have three adult children.
Two persons of color in HIGH positions of authority in CoCoCo law enforcement. Hmmm. I wonder how that will go over with the rank and file “victims” of “The Great Replacement” who are surely comfortably out there in significant numbers given the new permission structure afforded them by the far right and the new Republican Party.
A conservative era has ended. Mark Petersen ex-DA gone. His buddy, Paul Mulligan (undergrad UCBerkeley, also an attorney) ex-Chief of DA Inspectors forced out last month by Becton. The transformation is complete. Richmond/West Contra Costa County is running the prosecutors office of Co Co County.
Duly elected. I’m pretty sure the offices are in Martinez.