Wu appoints new police commissioner; he rose through BPD ranks after being beaten by other officers

Mayor Wu today announced she has appointed Michael Cox, a lifelong Bostonian who rose through BPD ranks to assume a variety of command posts, as the city's new police commissioner.

For Cox, 57 and born in Roxbury, the job is a homecoming - he has spent the last three years as police chief in the small Michigan city of Ann Arbor.

Cox is best known locally for a 1995 incident in which he was savagely beaten and kicked by other officers as they were chasing a shooting suspect in Roxbury, leaving him with serious kidney damage and facial injuries. Nobody was ever charged for the attack, save for one officer who denied seeing Cox stomped - and his conviction was ultimately overturned.

Cox started a press briefing this morning by discussing the beating - and how it convinced him to stay in on the force.

"I have dedicated my life to making sure both the Boston Police Department and policing in general has grown and learn from the experiences, at least, that I went through then," he said of what he called a prime example of "unconstitutional policing."

He added, "the reality is I love public service. ... Part of my healing process was [figuring out] what do I want to do with my life?" He decided "I'm going to stick around and see if I can figure it out." The result, he said, was he took a lot of classes - he has both a master's in criminal justice and an MBA - and he rose from an officer in District B-3 to serving in a variety of command positions in BPD, including heading Internal Affairs, overseeing the three police districts in the southern part of the city as working as assistant chief of investigative services.

Cox replaces acting Commissioner Gregory Long, who has served for a year and a half, after Commissioner William Gross suddenly resigned, and Mayor Walsh replaced him with Dennis White, whom he then suspended a couple days later after details surfaced about domestic-violence allegations in his past.

Cox said that one of his main goals once he assumes his post on Aug. 15 is a return to the sort of community policing Boston was once known for. The past couple of pandemic years have made it hard for officers to actually walk beats and become part of their communities, but that's vital to ensure the public learns to trust officers - and that officers learn what their communities need, that the public can believe that "we are here, that we care; we need to listen we need to listen and take feedback." He said he also wants to see an expansion of events at which officers get to meet the public, everything from coffee hours to participating in peace walks.

"Boston is a very diverse city," he said. "We need go learn about the diversity of the city, all the cultures so we don't offend them in any way, so we don't traumatize them in any way."

He said that's a lesson he learned the hard way when he took the job in Ann Arbor - and quickly got suspended by the city manager for overly brusque with some members of his new department. He said what was just normal police talk in Boston just didn't translate well to a small Midwestern city.

He added that, back in Boston, the communications and learning will can't avoid the past: "We have to own some of the historical stuff that happened in the past so we can move forward."

At the same time he works on reviving community policing, he said, he plans to work closely with officers and their commanders to make sure they get the support and training they need. He said he's not at al a fan of defunding. He said he recognizes that there's a major role for mental-health and related services, but that they should be funded by themselves, rather than taking away from the money used to create a more professional police staff. "If [money] is taken from one to give to another something is going to give."

He said that both goals can unit in assuring a more diverse department that better reflects the diverse city it serves. "We really need to get into all our neighborhoods to attract folks to [police work]." He said that attracting diverse candidates is an issue right now, because a lot of people don't want anything to do with police, never mind look at possible jobs as officers.

Mayor Wu said Cox was one of four finalists recommended by a search committee - with a mix of both BPD and out-of-town candidates. But Wu said that she realized Cox was "the one" just minutes into their first conversation about the job.

"His love for Boston shines through," she said. "There was just such a sense of hope and excitement and joy about what we could get done together."