An anti-police sentiment among politicians that feeds off an increasingly mistrustful — and vocal — public is convincing some of the nation’s top law enforcement officials to call it quits.
Police departments in major cities across the country — including New York, Chicago, the District of Columbia and Louisville, Kentucky, — are not only seeing their top brass leave, but they’re also having a hard time finding permanent replacements, even with salaries that, in some cases, can top the mayor’s.
The leadership drain coincides with polls showing respect for law enforcement sinking.
A recent Gallup survey found just 45% of respondents had confidence in the police — the lowest law enforcement has scored in the 30 years in the poll.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted after Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis found that only 39% of respondents say they believe cops are trained to use proper force. Only 41% of respondents in that same poll say police treat White and Black people equally.
Caught-on-camera interactions gone wrong — often involving Black suspects and White police officers — and the heightened media scrutiny that followed have chipped away at the public’s view of law enforcement as an honorable profession.
“You’re seeing a manifestation of the negative aura that has impacted law enforcement for the last 10 years, and it’s becoming more and more huge,” said Andrew Scott, a former police chief in Boca Raton, Florida, who now works as a police consultant.
Mr. Scott told The Washington Times that police chiefs struggle to balance good relations with their unions, the public and their political bosses. That high-stress juggling act is likely why some interim chiefs have said thanks but no thanks when offered promotions to the top job.
Fred Waller, the current superintendent of Chicago police, became the third person to lead the department in six months when he took over in May.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in May that Mr. Waller agreed to fill the position only until the city finds a permanent superintendent. Mr. Waller came out of retirement — he left the force in the summer of 2020 — to run the department.
The District’s interim police chief, Ashan Benedict, said in May that he, too, has no interest in pursuing the Metropolitan Police Department’s top job.
Chief Benedict plans to resume his role as the executive assistant to the chief of police once D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser selects a long-term replacement for former Chief Robert Contee III, who left for a job with the FBI at the beginning of June.
Pamela Smith, the former head of the U.S. Park Police who now runs D.C. police’s Homeland Security Bureau, is among the job candidates.
Large police departments — those with 1,000 or more employees — already experience a greater amount of turnover in their leadership than smaller departments.
The Police Executive Research Forum said the average tenure of a police chief for a large department is five years. At smaller departments, chiefs are more likely to stay over seven years.
The forum also found that the number of first-time chiefs is increasing. Only 15% of the 347 respondents to its 2021 national survey of police chiefs said that they had led an entire department before. In its 2014 survey, a quarter of the respondents had served as a chief prior to taking on the role elsewhere.
More first-time chiefs taking over departments can be seen as a sign of upward mobility, but that comes at the risk of less experience.
Michelle Woodfork, New Orleans’ interim superintendent of police, was elevated to her role in December despite never serving as a commander of her own police district, according to the Times-Picayune.
Veteran officers appear to be suffering from burnout as well.
Superintendent Woodfork was selected to replace the retiring Shaun Ferguson, who himself replaced Michael Harrison in 2019 — the top cop who departed New Orleans for the commissioner’s job in Baltimore — where Commissioner Harrison was paid almost $300,000 a year, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Now Commissioner Harrison is weeks removed from his own resignation in Charm City, saying he wants to spend more time with family. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has since chosen Deputy Commissioner Richard Worley to serve as acting boss.
Qualified officers can be found throughout most departments, but one former chief said that some are turning down opportunities to step up.
“I think there are a lot of second-tier command staff who will not accept a promotion because, as you progress through your career, you want stability, you want to maintain your retirement,” said Joel Shults, a former police chief at Adams State University in Colorado. “Wandering into that minefield of being a police chief can really put your whole future and financial security at risk.”
Mr. Shults, who now writes about police issues, has argued in favor of legislation that grants police chiefs employment protections so they can’t be fired at will by political bosses. Missouri law, for example, stipulates that police chiefs can be let go only if they are involved with misconduct, insubordination, violate a written policy or commit a felony.
Steady police leadership is important for politicians pushing changes to policing. Without a consistent presence in command, Mr. Scott said, it’s hard for police chiefs to establish a culture in their department that brings about the desired changes and helps maintain recruitment goals.
Many times, he said, it comes down to political leaders being too accommodating to a small minority of their constituents and those people’s perceptions of how law enforcement should be run.
“The chief is subjected to the whims of civilians [who are] politically driven and that know nothing about law enforcement,” Mr. Scott told The Times. “What is being demanded by their political bosses is incongruent with what the chief knows is good law enforcement practices that protect the general public.”
That doesn’t always cut in the direction of progressives who are concerned with criminal justice reform.
Keechant Sewell stepped down last month after just 16 months as the first female New York City police commissioner, partly because Mayor Eric Adams — a former NYPD cop — took an active role in overseeing the nation’s largest police force, according to Gothamist.
The most recent reported salary for the NYPD commissioner’s post was almost $240,000 a year.
But not all police chiefs are dissuaded by the tumult.
Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, who is the interim head of the police department in Louisville, Kentucky, is also on the short list of candidates the Louisville mayor is considering for the permanent job. Superintendent Woodfork in New Orleans is also considered to be Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s front-runner for the permanent job.
Mr. Shults contends that law enforcement officers continue to be seen as one of the most respected professions in the country.
Even with the public’s historically low confidence in the police, they were still ranked as the third-most-trusted institution — ahead of churches, the medical system and public schools.
But Mr. Scott says there is little upside to becoming a police officer nowadays. The possibility of one tragic mistake can lead to the loss of a job, a lawsuit, a prison sentence — or all three.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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