Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Daniel Murphy Leaving, Commissioner Announces Changes In Top Leadership
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison announced that Deputy Commissioner Daniel Murphy is leaving the city police department.
"I am truly grateful for the level of expertise and experience Deputy Commissioner Danny Murphy brought in helping our department make extensive progress with the Federal Consent Decree," said Harrison. "I wish him well in his new opportunities to impact police reform at a national level, and I thank him for his service to the department and the citizens of Baltimore."
Murphy was hired in April 2019 under Harrison as the BPD Deputy Commissioner of the Compliance Bureau at 29 years old. He came from Harrison's former post with the New Orleans Police Department and Harrison said Murphy and his wife are returning to Louisiana to be closer to family.
"He is regarded as one of the leading experts in policing reform in this country," Harrison said. "Police departments as well as private and public sector organizations from across, and even outside of the United States, called Deputy Murphy for his expertise. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for us, he is in very high demand."
Murphy helped the department implement a new use of force, stop & search and arrest policies as well as retrain the department using some of the nation's leading law enforcement curriculum and instruction. He also helped modernize BPD's notoriously outdate IT infrastructure to move from a primary paper-based police department to a digital system, including the development of the department's new records management system that will be operation later this year.
""I want to thank Commissioner Harrison and the team at the Baltimore Police Department for welcoming me and working together to make significant progress transforming the Department through the sweeping reforms of our Consent Decree," said Murphy. "It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside this team to implement systemic reforms to increase accountability, build public trust, and improve community collaboration. I'm proud of how we have impacted the national police reform movement during this pivotal time and look forward to the Baltimore Police Department's continued improvement in serving this great community."
Harrison said Murphy also launched the EPIC program, which stands for Ethical Policing Is Courageous, a peer intervention program that teaches officers how to intervene and stop wrongful police actions before they occur. Murphy also helped to develop the department's first community policing plan, which Harrison said is considered a model document by the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
"I'm grateful for the contributions that Deputy Commissioner Murphy has made to the city of Baltimore," said Mayor Brandon Scott. "He and his team worked tirelessly to translate over 500, that's right 500 reforms required by our consent decree into actionable police and culture change here in BPD."
Deputy Commissioner Michael Sullivan, who is with the Operations Bureau, will now lead the compliance bureau. Harrison said he volunteered to step up into this role.
Harrison also announced Col. Sheree Briscoe will take over as the deputy commissioner of operations.
All of the personnel changes will go into effect on June 1.
Watch the press conference here:
