The Chief re-assumes command

I am a huge fan of Dallas Police Chief David Brown so I was enthused to read about the reaction to the Chief's first public appearance this morning since the tragedy involving his son. For those just coming out of three months of hibernation, David O. Brown Jr. shot to death a Lancaster police officer and another young father on Father's Day before dying in a barrage of bullets.

Brown spoke this morning to a meeting of the Dallas Crime Commission in a presentation that, according to Dallas Morning News columnist James Ragland illustrated why Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm named him the city's 28th police chief. It was also an appearance, from all the evidence, that justified that appointment.

I got to know Brown when I was executive director of the Dallas Northeast Chamber of Commerce and Brown was chief of the Northeast substation. I brought to him a number of suggestions for greater citizen involvement in the area's crime fighting efforts and he not only embraced them, but set in motion programs to make them happen. He made the area a safer place to live and conduct business.

I grieved for Brown because of what happened on Father's Day and, as a father myself, empathized with him over that and all the subsequent events involving his son's funeral procession. But I'm overjoyed to see Brown has somehow managed to emerge from the tragedy with his strength and dignity intact and is back in command of the Dallas Police Department.