Ella Bully-Cummings
| Ella M. Bully-Cummings | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1958 (age 58–59) Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Police career | |
| Department |  Detroit Police Department |
| Allegiance |
 State of Michigan
|
| Country |
 United States of America
|
| Years of service | 1977–2008 |
| Rank | Sworn in as an officer (1977) Sergeant (1987) Lieutenant (1993) Captain (1995) Commander (1998) Assistant chief (2002) Chief of police (2003-2008) |
Ella M. Bully-Cummings (born 1958) was the chief of police of the City of Detroit from 2003 to 2008.
Bully-Cummings was born in Japan, the second-oldest of eight children of an African American repairman and a Japanese housewife. Her parents met when her father was serving in the U.S. Army as part of the American Occupation forces. The family settled in Detroit, her Mississippi-born father's adopted hometown, before she was two years old.
While in high school she worked at a movie theater, and between graduating from high school and going into the police force in 1977 she worked as an administrative assistant at Redford High School and sold real estate.
She attended Henry Ford Junior High School in Highland Park, Michigan, and is a graduate of Cass Technical High School. Bully-Cummings helped her parents pay for her siblings' education through early years on the police force. She went to college herself while still serving on the police force after helping to pay for five of her siblings. In December 1993 Bully-Cummings graduated with honors from Madonna University with a bachelor's degree in public administration. She then went on to graduate cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law with a J.D. in January 1998 and was sworn into the State Bar of Michigan in May 1998.
Bully-Cummings entered the police academy in 1977. In the mid-1980s she worked for the Detroit Free Press as a receptionist, secretary, and administrative assistant when hundreds of police officers were laid-off due to budget cuts. Back to the force, she rose to the rank of sergeant in 1987. She continued her rise in the department by making lieutenant in 1993 and commander in 1998.
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