The Justice Department said Wednesday it had appointed a retired police chief to run a new project to help police officers improve their relationships with their communities, part of a broader effort to build more trust in American law enforcement.
Noble Wray, the former chief in Madison, Wisconsin, will lead the Policing Practices and Accountability Initiative, the department announced. He served as a Justice Department consultant in Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of the August 2014 police shooting of an unarmed black man, helping local authorities confront problems associated with systemic racism.
As chief in Madison, he pushed similar efforts, and his final crisis before leaving the force in 2013 was dealing with an officer's controversial killing of a burglary suspect.
“Chief Wray's background and extensive experience make him the ideal candidate to lead this effort,” Ronald Davis, Wray's new boss at the Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, said in a statement.
Wray will join the agency as it implements criminal justice reforms proposed by President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The group was assembled as a response to unrest following the shooting in Ferguson and a New York officer's fatal strangling of a suspect.
