Call Me Director

E. Winslow (Buddy) Chapman, the 39-year-old executive assistant to the Mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, became the first, and so far, only civilian to hold the top job at the Memphis Police Department. It was 1977. For decades Insurance companies have labeled Memphis the "Murder Capital of America." The MPD was a police force that had been in crisis for more than a decade and was in dire need of leadership and reform.

Chapman took charge as the new Memphis Police Director facing entrenched police corruption, multiple federal civil rights investigations and judicial consent decrees, an unhappy police union wanting more pay and promotions, and a long public record of police abuse, especially against black citizens.

He also took office under the resentful gaze of a city police chief - a man protected by civil service rules, and who could have been a model for any good old boy anywhere. The chief fought Chapman's every move and even attempted to force him from office through a ham-handed attempt at extortion.

Chapman, who thrived under such circumstances and who believed he could change the MPD one reform after another, outlasted his enemies - even when his Mayor grew doubtful of his tactics - and gradually brought about meaningful change. He did so despite external obstacles and internal attempts to trip him up.

Over five difficult years, he rebuilt the police department into a model force. Before he was finished, his ideas about police reform and leadership were sought by Congressional leaders, and President Ronald Reagan appointed him to a presidential task force on effective local policing.

His reforming spirit speaks to contemporary times.