Robert C. White | |
---|---|
Born | 1953 (age 63–64) |
Police career | |
Department | Denver Police Department |
Country | United States |
Years of service | 1972 – present |
Rank | Chief of Police |
Robert C. White (born 1953) is a career police officer and the current chief of police of the Denver Police Department, Denver, Colorado. He was appointed in 2011 by Mayor Michael Hancock.
White graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Public Administration from the University of the District of Columbia in 1993. He earned an M.S. in Applied Behavioral Science in 1996 from Johns Hopkins University.
White started as a policeman in 1972 with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.. He rose to the position of assistant chief before retiring after 23 years in 1995. He was then director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority Office of Public Safety from 1995 until 1997, when he returned to the D.C. police department as assistant chief overseeing patrol operations. He left D.C. in 1998 to become chief of police at the Greensboro, North Carolina Police Department. In 2003 he became the chief of police of the newly formed Louisville Metro Police Department, Louisville, Kentucky.
In 2011, newly elected Denver mayor Michael Hancock appointed White as the new Denver police chief, one of his first high-profile appointments. Hancock, elected in 2010, had promised during his campaign to bring new leadership to the Denver Police Department, after a number of complaints of excessive force, and allegations of lax discipline for those officers found to have acted improperly.
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) conducted the national search that led to White's hiring from the Louisville police department by Hancock. White was a member of PERF when he was hired by Hancock. During the fall of 2015, White became a member of PERF's Board of Directors.