by John Glidden | glid24@protonmail.com | June 4, 2026
VALLEJO – Lieutenant Jeremy Huff, who has served with the Vallejo Police Department for nearly 25 years, has been promoted to police captain, according to his profile page on the department’s webpage.
Huff replaces Sanjay Ramrakha, who was elevated to deputy police chief in May following the announcement that Deputy Police Chief Bob Knight is retiring this summer after 27-years with the department, including the last three as deputy chief.
The announcement of Ramrakha’s promotion to deputy chief caused some commotion in the community as he allegedly had his badge bent by a former high-ranking police official.
Former Lt. Michael Kent Tribble testified in court in March 2022 that he started the controversial “badge bending” practice while as an officer in the Concord Police Department more than 20 years ago. Tribble, who brought it to Vallejo when he joined the force in 2003, said he bent Ramrakha’s badge in the early 2000s.
Ramrakha has previously served as an internal affairs investigator and also previously headed the department’s efforts to reform its use of force policy.
Over the past few years, the deputy chief of police position has seen a lot of movement including at least one termination. Then-Police Chief Shawny Williams fired Deputy Police Chief Michael Kihmm in October 2021 about the same time he hired Jason Ta to serve as the second deputy chief.
Kihmm’s duties included reviewing internal affairs investigations. In one case he reviewed, Kihmm adjusted a use of force finding by then-Sgt. Sanjay Ramrakha, who concluded that Officer Colin Eaton did not violate the use of force policy when he stepped on a man’s head during a search. Kihmm concluded that it was a violation. Williams suspended Eaton for 80 hours, which a hearing officer during a mandatory review hearing found to be too lenient, but deferred to Williams’ judgment.
In June 2023, the city hired former Selma Police Chief Joseph Gomez as its new deputy chief. Gomez filled one of two vacant deputy chief positions for the city of Vallejo at the time. Kihmm’s position remained vacant while the second had been vacant since former Police Chief Shawny Williams resigned in November 2022 and Ta was elevated to interim police chief.
Gomez left Vallejo in March 2024, just nine months after he was hired. Last year, he sued the department, claiming that he discovered a number of officer misconduct investigations were approaching a one-year statutory deadline. The suit claims that Gomez worked diligently to review the investigations and determine if discipline was necessary but he received pushback from department members who allegedly preferred to allow the misconduct cases to expire, eliminating the possibility of disciplinary action.
In March, a Solano County Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, stating that Gomez’s claims did not meet the basic requirements for a valid whistleblower claim under the law.
The Vallejo City Council approved the creation of two deputy chiefs during the 2021-2022 fiscal year. This was done to ensure the deputy chiefs would be independent and not represented by the Vallejo Police Officers’ Association (VPOA). Prior to that, the department’s three police captains reported directly to the chief of police. Vallejo’s police captains are part of the VPOA union.
Currently, the second deputy chief position and the third police captain position have been frozen as a cost-saving measure.
Meanwhile, Huff has also served as vice president of the VPOA. According to his same department profile, he has “held multiple critical supervisory roles, overseeing the Traffic Division, the Mobile Field Force Team, the Field Training Program, and the Bicycle Patrol Unit. Additionally, he is a highly skilled instructor, imparting his knowledge in emergency driving, firearms proficiency, defensive tactics, and bicycle patrol techniques.”
Huff will oversee the administrative bureau.
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