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Top black cops: African-American chiefs take the helm in metropolitan America
Ebony, Oct, 1998 by Joy Bennett Kinnon
ALTHOUGH the number of Black police chiefs has declined since the peak years of the 1970s and 1980s, Blacks now lead the second-, third- and fifth-largest police departments in the country and a new round of chiefs is continuing the steady advancement of Black police officers to the top echelons of police administration.
Black police chiefs can also be found in some surprising locations around the country like Phoenix, Portland, Ore., and Oklahoma City. Atlanta is still the only major metropolitan area with a Black female police chief. Among the top Black police chiefs are the 16 listed on the following pages according to the size of their departments. Also listed is an Alabama police chief who represents the new wave of Black female police chiefs.
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The head of the second-largest police department in America is Terry G. Hillard, a 29-year veteran who was appointed in February by Chicago's current mayor, Richard M. Daley. It had been more than 10 years since the city's last Black police chief, LeRoy Martin, was appointed by the late Mayor Harold Washington.
Hillard's appointment surprised onlookers and "flabbergasted" Hillard.
"I was flabbergasted then and I still am," he says in a recent interview. "When the mayor called me that morning and said, `Good morning, Mr. Superintendent,' I was standing up, but my legs wobbled."
It would take a move of this magnitude to rattle Hillard. Neither brash nor cocky and normally so soft-spoken that visitors have to lean forward to hear him, Hillard is the definition of cool. But don't underestimate him. A former Marine, a decorated Vietnam veteran and survivor of gunshot wounds and colon cancel, Chicago's new top cop is no stranger to controversy or crimefighting, and his top priorities will be a war on gangs, drugs and crime. Hillard heads the second-largest police force in the country, a department with 16,856 employees, including 13,545 sworn officers, and a $923 million annual budget. Hillard, who was Chicago's first African-American chief of detectives, was a member of the bodyguard security details for mayors Jane M. Byrne and Harold Washington and was a member of the anti-terrorism unit. His leadership style is to encourage opposing viewpoints. But aides had better have the facts. "Yes-folks," as he calls them, don't get far on his team. "Yes-folks can harm you because they let you do the wrong things," he says. "They just want to please you, and it's not about pleasing, it's about what's right. We have to do what's right."
As a former patrol officer who came up through the ranks, Hillard is respected by and loyal to the rank-and-file, men and women who patrol the streets. "One of my main priorities is to ensure that those young men and women out there get their just due," he says. "We need to start recognizing and supporting them more."
He also supports specialized training for all officers, not just the brass, and getting more young people involved in community-policing efforts. "We need to let the police know that every young man with his hat turned backwards, whether he's Black, White, or Hispanic, is not a gang-hanger or drug dealer," he says. Nor, he says, is every policeman "brutal or corrupt. Police officers have the same aspirations and expectations for their kids and their families that everybody else does."
Hillard advocates "counseling, direction and training," for young officers who make a "legitimate mistake," but he won't tolerate police corruption or brutality. "If they get out there and intentionally commit illegal acts or brutalize people, and they did it knowingly, then we need to do everything in our power to get them terminated," he adds.
There is a lot of talk in the 'hood about police brutality, especially after Rodney King and other high-profile eases. Has he, as a Black man, experienced any problems with the police?
Working undercover in the gang unit, Hillard was stopped and frisked more than 20 years ago, he saws. Although he recalls it as a "little incident," he had to do some fast talking when police found "a 9 millimeter and a big ol' 357" on him. Even though he told the officers who he was, he says, "they saw a Black-skinned man with a big Afro, so I told them to check my right ankle in my sock--that's where my badge was."
Hillard says he is reviewing a guide put together by the NAACP, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and Allstate Insurance Co., which trains young people how to respond if they are stopped by the police, in order to de-escalate any possible confrontations.
"The first initial contact can decide whether a street-stop is going downhill or if everybody will leave with a good taste in their mouth," he says. "We need to be very respectful and mindful of how we address people--and that goes both ways. Treat people with respect and dignity, and we shouldn't have any problems out here."
