Oakland’s new interim police chief, appointed to clean up the mess after a growing sex scandal, lasted just six days on the job. Ben Fairow, a former Oakland officer who had been working as a deputy chief with Bay Area Rapid Transit, was removed from the position Wednesday by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who had appointed him last week. She wouldn’t explain why, but the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Fairow lost the new job because he had failed to reveal an extramarital affair.
Fairow returned to his old job with BART, where Police Chief Kenton Rainey said, “Ben has shared information with me that, while he was married, he had a personal relationship with a consenting adult more than a decade ago.” The Chronicle said Mayor Schaaf had failed to do a full background check on Fairow before hiring him to replace Chief Sean Whent, who was forced to resign amid a sex scandal. Four Oakland cops were placed on leave and two of them resigned as a result of a misconduct case involving a teenage sex worker, the daughter of a police dispatcher. The young woman says she had sex with many other officers from several Bay Area police departments.