San Antonio Police Department veteran Jesus "Jesse" Salame Jr. is set to become the city's next police chief, and civic and business leaders are cheering the appointment of a San Antonio native they say is committed to open dialogue on how to improve the department.
City Manager Erik Walsh announced his selection of Salame on Wednesday. The mayor and City Council will vote to confirm his appointment on Sept. 10.
He has the support of a council majority.
Salame, 50, has served as acting chief since July 11, when former Chief William "Bill" McManus retired after leading the SAPD for two decades. Salame was the department's longtime spokesman and chief of staff to McManus before he was promoted to assistant chief in 2024.
During a news conference Wednesday, Salame said the department under his leadership would focus on people, safety and trust.
"If we get these things right, I believe we can make a great department even better - a department where our people are proud to serve, and the community has confidence in us," he said.
Ananda Tomas, executive director of the criminal-justice reform group Act 4 SA, said she is cautiously optimistic about Salame's appointment.
She served on a community panel that questioned Salame and four other candidates, all SAPD outsiders, during the final round of interviews in August. She said was intrigued by the outside candidates' strategies for handling officer-involved shootings and police responses to mental health crises.
"We hope that (Salame), as a police chief, will be open to learning from other cities
and other departments," Tomas said.
Less than 24 hours before Salame's appointment was announced, an officer shot and wounded an 18-year-old male during a traffic stop on the West Side. It was the department's ninth officer-involved shooting this year and the fourth such shooting since Salame was named acting chief.
READ MORE: 'Meant to be here': How SAPD's Jesse Salame rose through the ranks
Tomas said Salame has agreed to meet with families of people killed in police shootings.
"He has been making a direct effort to try to build a relationship with us as an accountability partner," she said. "I am hoping it means a change because that's not something that ever happened under our previous police chief."
Trish DeBerry, CEO of Centro San Antonio, a public-private nonprofit that advocates for downtown businesses and residents, called Salame a pragmatic choice for chief. She said she has worked with him closely since her hiring three years ago.
DeBerry, a former Bexar County commissioner, said Salame is "laser-focused" on collaborating with the county to end double magistration - a wasteful system where both the city and county effectively hold bond hearings for arrestees - and address concerns over access to healthcare at the Bexar County jail.
Most recently, DeBerry and Salame have worked together on an ad hoc city-county committee exploring the possibility of developing a diversion center that would allow low-level offenders struggling with mental illness or substance abuse to receive health care at an alternative facility.
"He's incredibly responsive, but there is never a knee-jerk reaction," she said. "He processes, he comes up with a thoughtful and intentional solution, and I think that's what we can expect from him as chief."
Norman Velez, owner of Brooster's Backyard Icehouse and a 48-year resident of the South Side, said he is "tickled pink" that the new chief is from San Antonio.
"It's important that we keep as many people from San Antonio in these high ranking positions so that they have a better understanding of the history of San Antonio and try to preserve that as much as possible," Velez said.
He hopes Salame will put more "boots on the ground" on the South Side to address property crimes and other crimes of opportunity.
His business has been broken into about four times in the past year. Thieves cut through a fence and took items worth hundreds of dollars each time, but Velez said he didn't report the break-ins because there was no security footage or other evidence.
"I'm more concerned with the safety of the everyday citizen," Velez said.
He pointed to Superhero Saturday, a community event his business once hosted where children could meet officers, tour police vehicles and see a canine unit firsthand. Those kinds of events, Velez said, help break down the perception that police only appear at people's worst moments.
"I'd like to establish some type of forum where police and the community come together in a very non-hostile environment to get to know each other on a more personal level," Velez said.
Velma Peña, president of the Westwood Square Neighborhood Association, believes the SAPD can improve community relations through the San Antonio Fear Free Environment (SAFFE) Units, which assigns officers to build ties in targeted neighborhoods.
She wants to see SAFFE officers communicating more often with residents, especially in communities like Westwood Square, which has experienced drug activity and other crimes.
For Peña, that's "not just going to a neighborhood association meetings."
"I'm talking about meeting the people that actually live in the community that you represent," she said.
Staff writer Molly Smith contributed to this report.
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This article originally published at 'Thoughtful and intentional': Civic, business leaders cheer appointment of Jesse Salame as police chief.