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Danielle Outlaw, who served as Portland’s police chief for two years until leaving to lead the Philadelphia force in 2019, has announced that she’s leaving that job as well. She’ll become the deputy chief security officer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Outlaw was the first Black woman to lead the Portland Police Bureau. Her two years in Portland were filled with rumors that she was contemplating moving up the career ladder to a bigger city, which she did in 2019: to Philadelphia, tasked with reforming the city’s scandal-ridden police force, which is the country’s fourth largest.
Her tenure there was marked by familiar challenges: surging gun homicides, a violent police response to racial justice protests, staffing shortages, and tensions with the city’s progressive new prosecutor.
“We continue to face the challenge of more guns on the streets than ever—but we’ve been able to decrease shootings and homicides, and I give the commissioner and her team credit for making that happen,” said Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.
Outlaw’s departure isn’t exactly a surprise. Kenney is leaving office in a few months, and whoever succeeds him is expected to clean house.