A community police advocate, Cox said during a media conference Wednesday that he was determined to “revitalize” the department’s efforts to rebuild relationships with residents, especially in neighborhoods of color where distrust in law enforcement it is deeply rooted. He cited consistency and humility as the department’s best tools for fostering trust, noting that “if people have issues, historical issues, we need to listen and show that we can accept these criticisms and, most importantly, , that we listen to them “.
Cox, a former Boston police superintendent, has won a long list of accolades during his career, but is perhaps best known in his hometown for the success of the civil rights lawsuit he filed against the department after of a 1995 incident when his comrades mistaken him for a murder suspect. , knocked him unconscious and for years tried to cover him up. Cox’s decision to share his experience drew attention to the dangers faced by the few black officers in the department, especially while working undercover.
“This is a comeback for me … [and] a pretty emotional moment, “Cox said Wednesday, his voice trembling.” Since then, in 1995, I’ve dedicated my life to making sure that both the Boston Police Department and the police in general they have grown up and learned from the experiences I had at the time. “
Cox’s appointment closely follows Wu’s selection of a new fire commissioner and a new school superintendent, consolidating his mark on the city’s leadership, and comes when the city has spent more than a year without a commissioner. permanent.
Wu said she was delighted to appoint a leader who “brings decades of experience working at all levels of our police department.”
“Chief Cox leads with that sense of possibility, a deep faith in what we can achieve together and a deep love for the city where he grew up,” he said.
In February 2020, while working as head of the Ann Arbor Police Department, Cox was placed on a brief administrative leave paid for allegations that he had created a hostile work environment and had unduly influenced an investigation. internal related to the parking application.
Michael Cox spoke with community members in the lobby of the Ann Arbor Justice Center when he was running for police chief in 2019. Ben Allan Smith / Associated Press
An investigation commissioned by the city by a law firm found “no evidence” that Cox’s behavior created a hostile work environment, and Cox was reinstated after less than a month. However, investigators concluded in a report that “there is no doubt” that many employees of the police department “felt very uncomfortable with the boss’s actions and fear retaliation.”
The investigation came after a lieutenant indicated he felt pressure from Cox not to recommend the dismissal of a parking supervisor who had concluded he had lied about the cancellation of tickets. After conducting interviews with police officers, including the lieutenant and Cox himself, investigators concluded that Cox characterized the cancellation of the ticket as an unimportant matter and made jokes that some in the department “have interpreted as in contempt “.
Asked about Wednesday’s incident, Cox said he “learned a little from it and I wish it didn’t happen.”
“I’ve always tried to train all agents on good practices to make good decisions and sometimes I can intimidate some people, but I apologize for how they perceived me,” he said. “It wasn’t my intention at all.”
Wu said he had spoken personally with the mayor and city administrator of Ann Arbor about the incident and was confident that Cox “is a leader of great integrity, who takes all steps of leadership very seriously and who has seized on any poor communication and used it as a learning opportunity. “
He is in charge of a full-time department for more than a year.
Former Commissioner Dennis White was fired two days after being appointed by former Mayor Martin Walsh, following a Globe investigation into allegations that White threatened to shoot his ex-wife. White was later fired and Chief Superintendent Gregory Long has served as acting commissioner since February 2021.
In January, Wu appointed a five-member committee to look for a new police commissioner in hopes of appointing someone in the spring. The compromised search partnered with a search company to solicit more than 40 applications and conduct two rounds of interviews to narrow the list of candidates to four finalists.
The city posted a job application in April looking for a “proven transformative leader” for the position, and Wu has repeatedly expressed a desire to hire someone to work on reforming a department that has been seen in several occasions in controversy.
Numerous Boston police officers pleaded guilty to overtime fraud last fall after a federal investigation found that more than a dozen employees, including former union president Thomas Nee, forged time sheets. to charge more than $ 300,000 in overtime.
Another union leader, Patrick Rose, was sentenced in April to 13 years in prison for sexually abusing six children for several decades. A year earlier, the Globe reported that Rose was allowed to remain in the force for 20 years after police officials determined she was likely to sexually abuse a child in 1995, exposing an institutional failure within the department. to discipline agents accused of misconduct.
Ivy Scott can be contacted at ivy.scott@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @itsivyscott. Emma Platoff can be contacted at emma.platoff@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @emmaplatoff. Danny McDonald can be contacted at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald.