Dallas' Next Top Cop Will Be Its First Female Chief, a Deputy From Detroit

Dallas finally has its first female police chief.City Manager T.C. Broadnax has hired Detroit’s Deputy Police Chief Ulysha Renee Hall, from a pool of seven finalists, three of whom from within the department.The position had been vacant since October, when Chief David Brown retired from the department. Assistant Chief of Police David Pughes ran the department as its interim chief while officials searched for a new one. Pughes didn’t apply for the permanent chief job.The city manager’s office initially selected eight people as finalists for the job, but Grand Prairie Police Chief Steve Dye withdrew his application.City officials haven’t said when Hall will formally take over, nor why she was selected.Three women -- incoming police Chief Ulysha Renee Hall,, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson -- now have some of the most powerful law enforcement jobs in the Dallas area.Hall, who has been in the Detroit force since 1999, has dealt with several issues paralleling crises in Dallas. These include the increasing homeless population and the loose dogs issue that has affected low-income neighborhoods.She now oversees officers on the entire east side of the city.In her cover letter for the Dallas chief job, Hall said she was responsible for managing the patrol staff and training officers on how to respond to terrorism.She seems to subscribe to the community policing approach that Brown advocated for while running the department. She noted in her cover letter that her team in Detroit worked to boost morale and “created a policing environment that is attractive to the millennial generation.”She touted double-digit reductions in Detroit’s crime for three years as one of her department’s accomplishments.Policing, though, is personal to her.She was 6 months old when her father, also an officer, was gunned down in 1971 while working a prostitution case that remains unsolved."Closure is very important for myself and my family," Hall said in an interview with Detroit’s WXYZ-TV last year. "We would like to know what happened. I believe I'm finishing what my dad started."Three people from within the Dallas Police Department were among the finalists for the top cop job. Dep. Chief Malik Aziz, who has been a finalist in several other cities, was a favorite among officers to become the chief.  Continue reading...