The Alameda County District Attorney's Office is the legal agency charged with prosecuting felony and misdemeanor crimes in Alameda County, California. Ursula Jones Dickson has served as district attorney since 2025.
Occupants of this office have gone on to serve in the California State Legislature and the United States House of Representatives and as mayor of Oakland, attorney general of California, secretary of state of California, governor of California, and chief justice of the United States.
History The Alameda County District Attorney's Office was created in 1853 upon the establishment of Alameda County. William H. Combs was appointed the first district attorney upon the office's creation. In the office's early decades, district attorneys often came from private practice and served short terms in office before either returning to private practice, becoming judges, or seeking higher political office.
Earl Warren served as Alameda County district attorney from 1925 to 1939. He would later go on to serve one term as attorney general of California and three terms as governor of California, and he was also chosen by New York governor Thomas E. Dewey as the Republican vice presidential nominee in the 1948 presidential election. In 1953, he was nominated for chief justice of the United States by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and served until 1969. The Warren Court handed down a number of landmark decisions, including Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964), Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), Miranda v. Arizona (1966), and Loving v. Virginia (1967).
In 2009, Nancy O'Malley became the first woman to serve as Alameda County district attorney. She retired in 2022 and vowed not to choose a successor, allowing the first open election for district attorney since Warren's retirement in 1938. Pamela Price was elected to succeed her, becoming the county's first African American district attorney. Price is also the county's first district attorney to be recalled, having lost a recall effort against her in 2024. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors appointed Ursula Jones Dickson to succeed Price in 2025.
List of Alameda County district attorneys # Name Term1 William H. Combs 1853–18542 John S. Chipman 1854–18553 George M. Blake 1855–18564 William Van Voorhies 1856–18575 William H. Glascock 1857–18596 William W. Crane 1859–18637 Stephen G. Nye 1863–18658 George M. Blake 1865–18699 Oscar H. La Grange 1869–187110 Stephen P. Wright 1869–187111 A. A. Moore 1871–187512 John R. Glascock 1875–187713 Henry Vrooman 1877–187914 E. M. Gibson 1879–188315 Samuel P. Hall 1883–188916 George W. Reed 1889–189317 Charles E. Snook 1893–189918 John J. Allen 1899–190719 Everett Brown 1907–190920 William Donahue 1909–191321 William H. L. Hines 1913–191722 Ezra Decoto 1917–192523 Earl Warren 1925–193924 Ralph E. Hoyt 1939–194725 J. Frank Coakley 1947–196926 D. Lowell Jensen 1969–198127 John J. Meehan 1981–199428 Tom Orloff 1994–200929 Nancy O'Malley 2009–202330 Pamela Price 2023–2024– Royl Roberts (acting) 2024–202531 Ursula Jones Dickson 2025–present
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