PORTLAND, Oregon — Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw, who came to 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 made a formal announcement during a news conference on Monday. 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 announced Monday that Jami Resch, the deputy chief, will become Portland's next 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 female 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 here, 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.
Chief Outlaw spoke with KGW in September 2018, one year into her tenure, on adjustments she had to make to her plans for the bureau, her role in dealing with social ills and homelessness, the bureau's role in ICE enforcement and her community outreach efforts.
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said in a statement of Chief Outlaw:
Over the last two years I have appreciated the opportunity to work with Danielle Outlaw while she served as Portland’s Police Chief. Her job was not an easy one, but it is a vital one for our city. As an outsider, being asked to change the culture of the Portland Police Bureau required a herculean effort, as well as a support team which I fear she never found. Chief Outlaw came to Portland because she was a visionary leader and I truly wish her well in her next role. While I appreciate the work done by Chief Outlaw, the fact remains that Chiefs will come and go – but it is the culture they leave behind that matters most to our community. There is still much work to be done to make PPB the organization we need it to be, and I look forward to working with Chief Resch as she takes on this charge.
KGW Sunrise anchor Brenda Braxton interviewed Outlaw last October and asked a now prescient question about her future as chief. Her reply:
"Once the contract is up, there's no protections. So you really have to make a decision. Do I just kind of continue to do this extremely risky work without a net or do I move on the next thing because I'm burned out, which I'm not yet. It just really depends on what I'm dealing with at the time. Or do you leave when you're on top. Because you know the life span of a police chief is nowadays really short. At some point, I'm going to have to start thinking about it. Again, I'm not burned out. I'm not out there interviewing. Yes people call me but it really depends on what I want my next step to be."