Joseph McNamara, the former San Jose, Calif., police chief whose outspoken criticism of the war on drugs, the gun lobby and Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates gave him a national profile as a progressive leader in law enforcement, died Friday at his home in Carmel, Calif. He was 79.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, his family said.
McNamara led the police force in Kansas City, Mo., before becoming chief of San Jose’s police department in 1976. Over the next 15 years, until his retirement in 1991, he introduced broad reforms, including putting computers into patrol cars, hiring more women and minorities and emphasizing community policing.
He took high-profile stands against the National Rifle Association, posing for gun control ads that portrayed the group as indifferent to the dangers that lax laws created for the average street cop. He also was a vocal opponent of the so-called war on drugs, arguing that strict “lock-’em-up” approaches were failing.
At the same time, he demonstrated his effectiveness as a crime fighter. During his tenure as chief, San Jose’s population grew by 40 percent, but major crimes – including homicide, rape, robbery, assault and burglary – dropped by 9 percent.