{"id":919913,"date":"2026-07-08T02:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T02:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919913\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T02:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T02:37:15","slug":"sapd-chief-william-mcmanus-reflects-on-20-year-tenure-successor-possible-future-in-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/919913\/","title":{"rendered":"SAPD Chief William McManus reflects on 20-year tenure, successor, possible future in politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO<\/strong> \u2013 San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus is retiring after two decades on the job.<\/p>\n

McManus originally said he would retire<\/a> from the department on Sept. 30, but announced an accelerated retirement on July 10 earlier this month.<\/p>\n

In one of his final interviews as the department\u2019s chief, McManus sat down with KSAT\u2019s Myra Arthur to discuss his legacy, his successor and rumors of a political future.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> What\u2019s this last week like, knowing your time as chief is almost over?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> It actually feels good. I want nothing. I want to go out Tim Duncan-style, under the radar, no fanfare.<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I never expected to say 20 years, ever. That\u2019s unheard of in a major city. But I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I would retire when my kids were finished with their education.<\/p>\n

While he is retiring from SAPD, McManus is moving on to become Vice President of Security for Silver Ventures, which manages The Pearl.<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I\u2019ve got 50 years \u2026 51 years of experience in law enforcement altogether. I\u2019ve been a chief for 24 years, and what am I going to do with that? Just go to sleep with it?<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> What\u2019s been the greatest challenge of leading SAPD?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> The greatest challenge is coming in from the outside and running a big police department \u2014 establishing credibility, establishing trust both internally and externally.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> Is that why you\u2019ve endorsed your successor as someone from inside SAPD \u2014 Assistant Chief Jesse Salame?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I met him when he was a detective. I promoted him up to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, deputy. He was my chief of staff; he was my PIO (public information officer). Jesse\u2019s done a great job. He knows the community, and he knows what path we\u2019ve taken for the last 20 years.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> What do you want to see in your successor, whoever that may be?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> Somebody who\u2019s humble. Somebody who can work with the community. Someone who knows the department \u2014 someone who\u2019s had to work within the department.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> There are rumors about a political future for you. How do you react to that talk?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I\u2019ve had people \u2014 I won\u2019t tell you from where, but all over the place \u2014 but I won\u2019t be specific about it, encouraging me to run for office. But my focus right now is on Silver Ventures.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> \u201cMayor McManus?\u201d<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> Could be. Who knows.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> \u201cSenator McManus?\u201d<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I don\u2019t know about that … You know, there\u2019s mayors all over the country who have been former police chiefs. So it\u2019s not unusual.<\/p>\n

Myra:<\/b> Well, speaking of elections, there will be a new Bexar County District Attorney at the same time there is a new SAPD chief. There\u2019s been public tension between the DA\u2019s office and SAPD. What needs to happen for that relationship to work?<\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> The public picture of those disagreements was probably more played up than behind the scenes, because (District Attorney Joe Gonzales) and I have always talked … The issue between the DA\u2019s office and the police department was the fact that we had a left-leaning DA who changed a lot of policies, where people weren\u2019t being prosecuted for certain crimes. There were a lot of cases being dropped, a lot of charges being dismissed … It absolutely needs to change, or the next DA is going to have the same problem.<\/p>\n

McManus said an acting chief will be named the same week he retires, and the search for his permanent replacement is underway. <\/p>\n

After a few more weeks off, McManus will return to work, but in a new role. <\/p>\n

McManus:<\/b> I\u2019m almost bored now, and I\u2019ve only been on leave for three days.<\/p>\n

Read also: <\/b><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus is retiring after two decades on the job.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":919914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,7725,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,45896],"class_list":["post-919913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-sapd","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-william-mcmanus"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116882036986349180","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}