Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw resigns her post for another position

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw will resign later this month to become a deputy security chief at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, ending her three-and-a-half-year run as the first Black woman to lead the city’s police force.

Her often-tumultuous tenure was marked by a series of unprecedented challenges, including pandemic shutdowns, record levels of gun violence and homicides, mass protests that her department responded to with heavy-handed tactics, and significant staffing shortages amid waves of retirements and resignations.

Outlaw’s last day will be Sept. 22, after which her top deputy, John Stanford, will serve as interim commissioner, Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. Stanford’s two decades in the department included stints overseeing Internal Affairs, leading a West Philadelphia police district, and serving as department spokesperson.

Outlaw said her departure was voluntary, but it comes just four months before Kenney is set to leave office and a new mayor is to be sworn in. Such transitions have traditionally been a time of turnover for city police chiefs, and Outlaw acknowledged in an interview that stepping aside now gives “whomever the new mayor is the opportunity to select their commissioner.”

She also said she believed the timing was right because gun violence has begun to fall from its record-setting heights. The city’s year-to-date homicide tally is 20% lower than last year, police statistics show, although the rate is still higher than almost every other year over the last two decades.

Still, Outlaw said she believed the reduction is the result of the department’s dedication to driving down crime.

“We’re really beginning to see the fruits of our labor,” Outlaw said. “We — not just me, all of us — have really endured some challenging times.”

During remarks outside an unrelated event Tuesday, Kenney said Outlaw notified him of her decision last week. He said it’s common for top officials to “begin to move on” in the waning days of any administration, and he praised her accomplishments, including record numbers of firearm seizures and improvement in the gun violence clearance rate — the percentage of investigations considered solved.

“She did a terrific job [during] unprecedented difficult times of pandemic, of civil unrest, of Donald Trump for four years,” he said. “She’s done a lot of reform measures that have changed the department, and we wish her well.”

Still, the Police Department has continued to face challenges and criticism, most recently after an officer fatally shot 27-year-old Eddie Irizarry in his car in Kensington. Police initially provided an inaccurate account of what happened, forcing Outlaw to walk back the details that a department spokesperson had provided the public. She later moved to dismiss Mark Dial, the officer who shot and killed Irizarry, for insubordination for failing to cooperate with the police investigation into the incident.

Kenney said the handling of the shooting had “nothing to do” with the timing of her resignation.

» READ MORE: Cherelle Parker praises Danielle Outlaw despite ‘Monday morning quarterbacks’

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which controls that region’s bridges, tunnels, ports, and airports — announced Outlaw’s hiring on Tuesday, saying she will oversee “major security functions” including emergency management, cybersecurity, and public safety. The authority declined to release her salary, saying it would not become public until she begins work later this month.

In addition to working with state and federal law enforcement, the office is responsible for overseeing the Port Authority’s 1,800-member police force — significantly smaller than the Philadelphia Police Department’s 6,000-member force. The authority has a nearly $1 billion safety and security budget, larger than the $800 million Philadelphia police budget.

Outlaw, who is paid $299,000 a year as police commissioner, acknowledged that at age 46, she has “a lot of years left” in the workforce, and she said she has interests beyond leading another municipal police force.

“There’s so many things that I know I’m capable of doing, not just in [traditional] law enforcement,” Outlaw said.

Outlaw’s future had become a topic of discussion within law enforcement and political circles in recent months, with speculation about who might replace her. Democratic mayoral nominee Cherelle Parker is heavily favored to be the city’s next chief executive, and she had demurred on the campaign trail when asked if she’d keep Outlaw.

In a statement, Parker praised Outlaw, saying no previous police commissioner “has ever dealt with the tornado of black swan events that Commissioner Outlaw was forced to reckon with.”

Campaign spokesperson Aren Platt said Tuesday that if Parker is elected, “this position along with many others will be part of a search looking in Philadelphia and across the country to ensure that we have the best and the brightest helping to lead our city.”

The police union wants to see an internal hire. John McNesby, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, said Tuesday that while he doesn’t expect the union to play a role in selecting the next commissioner, he had a “good, friendly meeting” with Parker about his vision for the department earlier this year.

McNesby — who has at times been publicly at odds with Outlaw — said morale among the rank-and-file is low amid staffing shortages, but that Stanford’s status as a veteran of the department provides “a shot in the arm to the street cops.”

“Outside picks don’t gel well in this town,” McNesby said. “With the political atmosphere and the learning curve, it just doesn’t work.”

The future of the department’s leadership is sure to become an even hotter topic before the next mayor takes office in January. The city’s top cop is one of the most visible officials in the region, and can set priorities for one of the nation’s largest police forces in a city that has chronically struggled with crime.

Charles H. Ramsey, who served as police commissioner from 2008 to 2016, said Tuesday that the city’s violent crime rate does not fall solely on the shoulders of the police commissioner.

”There’s an old saying in policing,” he said. “The best police chiefs are the last one, and the next one — never the person sitting there at the moment. It’s just the reality of the situation.”

Outlaw’s career had taken off over the past decade. After rising through the ranks in her hometown of Oakland, Calif., she became chief of police in Portland, Ore., in 2017, and came to Philadelphia less than three years later.

She was recruited after a series of scandals within the department, including a lawsuit that effectively led to the resignation of Outlaw’s predecessor, Richard Ross. He had been accused of retaliating against a former love interest, who also worked in the department.

Outlaw and Kenney spoke openly about the need for culture change. When he introduced Outlaw in 2019, Kenney said she had “the conviction, courage, and compassion needed to bring long-overdue reform to the department.”

Weeks after Outlaw was sworn in, in February 2020, her mandate shifted amid mounting crises.

First, Cpl. James O’Connor IV was fatally shot while serving a warrant in Frankford. Days later, the city shut down due to the pandemic, forcing Outlaw to make unprecedented choices about how officers should engage with residents or confront suspects.

Months later, demonstrators spent several days protesting the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Officers tear-gassed residents and protesters, detained journalists, and seemed unsure about how to respond to large and, at times, unruly crowds. Two officers were later criminally charged with assault, and a review commissioned by the Kenney administration said the Police Department was “simply not prepared” for the situation.

The city spent nearly $10 million to settle a host of lawsuits over the department’s response to the protests.

Paul Hetznecker, a civil rights attorney who represented hundreds of protesters, said Outlaw “lost the trust of the public” early in her tenure because of the department’s response to the unrest. At that time, he said, “there were red flags regarding her judgment and credibility.”

But Hetznecker said a lack of accountability does not fall only on Outlaw.

“The resignation of the most recent commissioner will not correct the systemic problems that have festered inside the Philadelphia Police Department for decades,” he said.

Since 2020, police staffing levels have plummeted, leaving the department hundreds of officers short of its target staffing at the same time that gun violence was surging to unprecedented levels.

By the end of 2022, nearly 1,600 people had been killed in homicides over the previous three years, and another 5,400 people had been wounded in shootings. The annual pace of gunfire was the highest in at least six decades, and Kenney’s administration — including the Police Department — was frequently criticized as lacking urgency.

Amid the spike, Outlaw and District Attorney Larry Krasner publicly disagreed on which crimes they should prioritize, with Outlaw saying in 2021 that there were “very key disconnects” between police brass and the city’s progressive prosecutor.

In a statement Tuesday, Krasner wished Outlaw well, but did not offer praise for her work. He said that “incidents of gun violence and other violent crime continue to decrease since the pandemic peak” and called on the city to invest more in prevention and crime-fighting technology.

As for her tenure here, Outlaw said she hasn’t had time to reflect on her legacy. She said she was often facing several once-in-a-career episodes at the same time, and that “the history books have not yet been written about what we all went through.”

She acknowledged that it took her longer than anticipated to get her footing in the department because COVID made meetings mostly virtual — something she said made it challenging to establish relationships within a large and new organization.

Still, she said she believes “the framework and foundation for success is here,” and that Stanford is “more than capable and competent to carry out anything we have in progress.”

One memory she said will endure is of those who thanked her for stepping into a role that a Black woman had never held. She said she used those sentiments “to keep me going.”

Of her time in Philadelphia, she said: “I don’t have any regrets whatsoever. It’s pushed me, I’ve grown in so many ways, and I’m excited for the future.”

Staff writers Sean Collins Walsh and David Gambacorta contributed to this article.