From Texas Standard:
After the tragic sniper shooting of police officers on July 7, Dallas Police Chief David Brown was thrust into the national spotlight. Brown's tenure as Dallas' top cop has been tumultuous at times. But after the shootings, the 33-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department suddenly became a rock for the city's recovery.
But now, at the height of his public image – and seemingly out of the blue – Brown is stepping down. He announced his decision yesterday on Twitter. The announcement took most everyone by surprise, but not Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. Rawlings said yesterday that he wasn’t surprised. He tells the Standard that the timing was right.
"A lot of officers retire around the 30-year mark,” Rawlins says, “so he's given us more years than I thought. Over the last year or so we've talked about him not going to be there forever.”
After the shootings in Dallas, the two worked hard to keep the community together.
"When we started to come up for air, [Brown] started talking about it and thought this was the right time for him," Rawlins says.
Brown and Rawlins guided Dallas through the aftermath of the police shootings. Rawlins reflects on what stood out to him at the time:
"It was a meeting with the families – it was meeting with the officers that had been there at the scene of the crime," he says. "It was listening to him talk about his faith about what we had a responsibility to do and really how proud he was of his force. That was a great moment in leadership that I got to see first hand.”
Post by Beth Cortez-Neavel.
