Marc Yamada will be Montgomery County’s new police chief after the County Council unanimously voted to confirm his appointment as part of the consent agenda during its Tuesday meeting.
Yamada is currently an assistant police chief with the department and will replace Chief Marcus Jones, who is retiring July 1. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich nominated Yamada, a Japanese American and a county police department veteran, in May. The father of a county police officer, Yamada will be the department’s 18th police chief and the first Asian American to hold the post. He lives in Brookeville.
Yamada , 60, will take over a department that has the highest vacancy rate of sworn officers in 10 years, according to a memorandum presented in March by the County Council’s Public Safety Committee. In recent years, the department also has been dealing with a reported increase in crime, including carjackings and auto break-ins and thefts, in the county.
According to county officials, Yamada has 35 years of experience with the county police department. An assistant chief for three years, Yamada is in charge of the Field Services Bureau, overseeing department services and divisions ranging from special operations, SWAT and K9 to traffic operations, school safety, community engagement and crisis response, according to Elrich’s office.
During an interview with the council last week, Yamada said he’s ready to tackle hot-button issues such filling officer vacancies, creating a more diverse workforce and improving the department’s performance when it comes to racial equity and social justice.
“In terms of racial equity and social justice, our scores are pitiful, very low. We’ve already incorporated racial equity and social justice into some of our performance evaluations,” Yamada said during the June 10 interview. “We’re looking to revamp the officers’ evaluations to be more reflective of those types of things. Hopefully, from a racial equity and social justice standpoint, I can move us forward from a very low score.”
He also said he wants to bolster mentoring programs to improve officer retention and limit turnover.
“My focus will be to recruit, retain and promote a diverse workforce that’s reflected in the communities that we serve,” Yamada said. “We have a multitude of officers and professional staff in our department who are more than capable of becoming leaders. … My goal is to get them to realize their fullest potential.”
When asked about his proudest accomplishments in 35 years with the department, Yamada pointed to his involvement in the Drone as First Responder program.
Under the department’s drone program, police deploy a drone after a 911 call if the dispatcher and drone pilot believe it would be useful. Once the drone arrives on the scene, the police officer remotely piloting the aircraft can assess whether a threat is credible, if more emergency responders are needed, and determine other details that could help expedite an emergency response, according to police.
A pilot program operating in Silver Spring and Wheaton was considered so successful by county officials that it was expanded to Bethesda, Gaithersburg and Germantown in the fiscal year 2025 operating budget.
