Former San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia Hired As Dallas Police Chief

DALLAS (CBS SF) -- Former San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia, who announced in August he was retiring at the end of the year, has been hired as Chief of the Dallas Police Department.

Garcia landed the job at the ninth-largest police department in the country over six other candidates and will become Dallas' first Latino chief of police

Garcia began his career at the San Jose Police Department in 1992 and worked as patrol sergeant, night detective and homicide investigator. He also commanded the SJPD Community Services Division and the Special Investigations Unit and was promoted to police chief in 2016.

"My story began as a young boy moving to a new city, learning to speak English in a community that promoted me to Chief. It's an honor to be welcomed into one of America's greatest cities for the second time as Chief." said Garcia in a prepared statement. "I'm truly humbled by the thought of wearing the DPD uniform and working alongside such an amazing group of committed men and women. Together in partnership and collaboration with the Dallas community, we will meet the challenges of today and beyond."

Garcia told KPIX 5 in August he was proud of diversifying the department, raising accountability and guiding it through a pension crisis that caused a mass exodus of officers.

"It wasn't just myself, but this amazing team that was able to turn the ship from a dying police department into what was a thriving police department," he said at the time.

Garcia's final year was marked by controversy. His officers were criticized for using violence to put down recent Black Lives Matter protests, including shooting non-violent protesters with rubber bullets, using tear gas and, in one instance, shouting the B-word at a female protester.

"We're not perfect. We made some mistakes. There was violence in what erupted that I had not seen in almost 30 years here. Not to say we're perfect. We will learn from that and get better," Garcia said.

Garcia is expected to begin his duties as Dallas police chief on February 3.