Dallas picks Detroit officer as first female police chief

The Dallas Police Department has a new police chief who will be the first female to serve as police chief in the city.

Detroit Deputy Chief Ulysha Renee Hall will take the helm of the city’s police department in September, Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax said Wednesday.

In her new leadership role with Dallas police, Hall said she hopes to continue her work building a bridge between the community and police.

“The most important thing that we need to know is that it takes the entire city to police any city,” she said Wednesday during a news conference out of Detroit. “Whether that is Detroit or Dallas, we need everybody, all hands on deck, everybody working together.”

During her time with the Detroit Police Department, Hall established and oversaw a neighborhood policing program that worked to create a relationship between minority communities and officers. According to a city of Dallas statement, Detroit saw a 40-year low in homicides and “double-digit reductions in violent crime for three consecutive years” at a time she served with the department.

Hall’s father, Officer Ulysses Brown, was killed in the line of duty Aug. 20, 1971, in Detroit. She was just 6-months-old at the time, according to Detroit’s ABC station, WXYZ-TV.

Almost 46 years later, her father’s murder remains one of Detroit’s oldest unsolved cases.

At the age of 29 in 1999, she began her service with the Detroit Police Department.

When asked about advice for other women in law enforcement, Hall said “anything is possible.

“What I need women to know is we kind of do it a little different, a little better, a little more nurturing by nature,” she said. “We add that little something special to law enforcement that truly, truly calms the savage beast. … Any young lady interested in law enforcement, go after your dreams, follow your heart and one day you too can stand as a chief of police in a major city.”

Hall understands the magnitude of her new job.

“This is a job about passion. If you love people and you love serving the community, this is a job for you,” she said.

Broadnax, in Dallas, also addressed the historic aspect of Hall’s hiring.

“I think it speaks volumes to where this city is,” he said of the first female police chief. “I think it speaks volumes to her police and law enforcement background. And I think it should be significant.”

Hall is replacing former Dallas Police chief David O. Brown who retired in October. Brown became the face of the police department in the wake of the July 7, 2016, …

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