I just listened to part of an interview with him on NPR. He seems like a man of exceptional character. Intelligence, compassion, faith, competence...he seems to have all this and more. I've lived in Dallas for the past 13 years, and I have really had no complaints about the DPD.

What do you think about him?

When he made the decision last year to use C4 to blow that asshole up who murdered those 5 cops, that told me all I need to know.  I am a fan.

That boosted his popularity quite a bit. I never thought much about him before that. Dallas has a lot of problems, I know he personally can't be blamed for all of it, but he was the face of the department, so he kind of gets stuck with it.

I have a love hate relationship with DPD.

There's nothing like calling for help and realizing you could walk to the pizza parlor, have them make you a pizza with everything on it, eat it and walk back home and still be waiting on the police.  

I had a detective call yesterday about our burglary from 3 weeks ago. He wanted me to email him any video we had. I'm not sure it's worth dicking with investing more time and money into it.

The impression that Mrs Rabinowitz and I share is that he is a good man.

We live just north of Dallas.

Fine upstanding gentleman. Except for the time he ordered DPD to perform a funeral procession for his dead son. His son was killed after killing a cop and another man. The DPD officers that I know hate him.

How many do you know?

How many of those have actually said to you that they hate him?

Also, Brown didn't order that procession.

My buddy retired as SGT in DPD.  Told me prior to Brown's promotion he hoped Brown was not the one to get Chief as he was recent convert.  Spent a career belly aching only to make it to command staff to have a do as I say, not as I did attitude.

After a couple years as Chief he stated he had become mostly a good Chief.  He threw out couple of whacky policies, but short of that he had converted to liking him.  That says a lot to me.

He knew him to come from belly aching to end up being "a decent Chief".  

My buddy is a good hard working Christian man, not a typical belly aching heathen.  He says it, I believe it.  

In fairness, I know more than a few that could not stand him.  By that I mean, said that to my face while we were sitting down enjoying a meal.  Many of them directly pointed to him as the reason overall morale was in the shitter, and this is years before 7716

When all the major police unions give you a no-confidence vote, and request you resign, it's telling.  


It is still suspected that Julian Bernal fell on his sword for the chief.


There were several issues within the department involving Brown personally.  One of the most recent was having lunch with a buddy, a sergeant,  of his who was under investigation by IA for having sex with another sergeant at DPD HQ while both were on duty.


ETA: I did like that he listened to some older detectives (Mike Flusche, for one) and allowed the creation of Metro Squad.

There were few who liked him before the shootout and he was on a path to be fired.

I do not know him and view Dallas a cesspool of fail anyway.

Sounds a lot like some of the stuff my buddy told me.  I am not sure what caused him to change his mind.  But about a year or so before he retired he started changing his mind.

<---Local cop. I went from loathing him to tolerating him as a status quo big-city police chief. He handled July 7 like a saint and picked a very fucking smart time to retire.

Even with some of the bad press before July 7, I always had a positive opinion of him.  Dallas certainly has done a lot worse.  Just look at Terrell Bolton.

He handled the shooting in Dallas exceptionally well, then retired on a high note. His career previous to that was meh at best.

I know many DPD officers. I play golf regularly with 9 officers when the weather permits weekly. I have participated in 3 different police associations golf tournaments for the past 4 years. I'm a voluntary neighborhood association president that participates in the DPD ENP program. Have been for the past 4 years. I'm pretty square with a lot of officers in the NW division on up to chief Shead. I get the chance to see her quarterly with our not so lovely city council woman. To answer your question I know more than a few DPD officers.
Chief shead will speak volumes about how great Brown was. In her defense, Brown did keep shit going. He did handle 7-7-2016 with great authority. I thank him for that. One days decisions does not make a great police chief.
He walked away. It was a election year. He was horrible for morale. You guys can assume the rest of the story.