Raleigh promotes from within for new police chief
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Rico Boyce will be Raleigh's next police chief. Photo: City of Raleigh
Raleigh's next police chief will be someone who has spent their entire career at the Raleigh Police Department.
Why it matters: Rico Boyce, RPD's current deputy chief, will immediately replace outgoing police chief Estella Patterson on March 1, after the city conducted a nationwide search for her replacement, including finalist candidates from Detroit and Chicago's police departments.
Driving the news: Boyce has been with the Raleigh Police Department for 25 years, working his way up from a patrol officer in RPD's Southeast division and school resource officer at Southeast Raleigh High School to the position of deputy chief.
- Boyce also previously worked on the city's gang suppression unit and helped start its Cops on Blocks initiative as a way to connect officers with the residents that they served.
What they're saying: "Rico Boyce has demonstrated that he knows how to effectively work with the community, and our process demonstrated the trust the community and the police department have in him," Raleigh City Manager Marchell Adams-David said in a statement.
State of play: Boyce will take over a department that is still trying to reach full strength.
- In February, RPD had 51 vacant positions within its ranks it was still trying to fill, though that number is down from the nearly 150 vacancies it had in recent years.
- The police department is hopeful those positions will be filled by the summer, but outgoing chief Patterson said the department needs to be expanded further to match Raleigh's fast-growing population.
- Patterson also called for significant raises for RDP officers, many of whom have been recruited away by higher wages in surrounding towns.
- At the same time, Boyce will inherit a city where violent crime appears to be trending down. After peaking in 2022, homicides in the city have fallen nearly 45% in the past two years, Axios previously reported.