Portland police chief leaving to be Philadelphia police commissioner
Mayor Ted Wheeler names Deputy Chief Jami Resch to succeed her
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who arrived in Portland in 2017 after a long career in Oakland, California, is leaving to become the police commissioner in Philadelphia, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced Monday morning.
The Philadelphia mayor's office was expected to make a formal announcement Monday morning, KGW reported. Outlaw will head a force of 6,400 officers, the fourth-largest municipal department in the country.
“I’d like to congratulate Chief Outlaw for landing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Mayor Wheeler said.
Wheeler also announced Monday that Jami Resch, the deputy chief, will become Portland's next police chief.
“You’re getting a damn good chief. We hate to lose her," Daryl Turner, head of the Portland Police Association, told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Wheeler announced in August 2017 that Outlaw, who had been the deputy chief in Oakland since 2013, would be his new chief. She was the first African-American chief of police in Portland.
"I have never been referred to as a diversity hire until I came here," she told KGW last fall.
In naming Resch, Wheeler said “We have considered all the options for what the next police chief should bring to the Bureau and after thoughtful, in-depth discussions, Jami Resch meets or exceeds all of the Bureau’s current leadership needs. Having served as the Deputy Chief of Police, I have complete confidence that Chief Resch will excel as our next police chief. She has my complete trust and a thorough understanding of my agenda."
Among her notable steps during her tenure, Outlaw took the initiative in advising Wheeler to break up a protest siege of an ICE center in Portland.
After national attention for creating an impression of standing back from dueling protester fighting each other in Portland, she cracked down on such confrontations.
She also declined to have her officers join ICE in immigration crackdowns.
