Chief Wayne Tucker, left, at scene of fatal shooting of Chauncey Bailey Aug. 2, 2007 (LauraOda/Oakland Tribune)

Chief Wayne Tucker, left, at scene of fatal shooting of Chauncey Bailey Aug. 2, 2007 (LauraOda/Oakland Tribune)

As Oakland Police Department’s top cop, Wayne Tucker has taken criticism from all sides as his department continues to investigate multiple cases in the wake of the slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey and the Aug. 3, 2007, raid on Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Tucker has said police believe that members of the bakery were involved in Bailey’s killing and several other crimes, including a kidnapping and torture case, the murder of bakery CEO Waajid Aljawwaad Bey, the attempted slaying of bakery security chief John Bey, and the gunning down of Odell Roberson Jr. and Michael J. Wills Jr. within blocks of the bakery.

The massive pre-dawn raid, unrelated to the Bailey killing, was conducted on a search warrant signed July 30 to seize evidence related to a May 17 kidnapping and torture of an Oakland woman. Roughly 200 officers swarmed the bakery and other properties, detaining 19 bakery associates and Bey family members and seizing evidence for multiple cases.

Tucker has had to defend the timing of the raid, which may have saved Bailey’s life had it come earlier, and the department’s practice of not of recording interrogations. Bailey’s alleged assassin, Devaughndre Broussard, initially denied involvement, then confessed after being placed in a room with bakery CEO Yusuf Bey IV, his employer.

Tucker’s top deputy, Assistant Chief Howard Jordan, has defended the department’s interrogation methods and the decision to assign Sgt. Derwin Longmire to the case, even though the 22-year-veteran has a longstanding friendship with Bey IV. Longmire decided to place Broussard alone in the same room with Bey and not record their conversation.

In October 2007, Tucker placed a gag order on Oakland police working any aspect of the Bey and Bailey probes, he did not want to jeopardize witnesses or investigations by other law enforcement agencies.

Tucker was appointed chief in August 2005 by then-Mayor Jerry Brown. He had spent 38 years on the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as assistant chief in 2004 before he was tapped as Oakland’s interim chief.