Erika Shields Will Be Atlanta’s Next Police Chief
Tasnim Shamma / WABE
Mayor Kasim Reed has announced Deputy Chief Erika Shields will be the second woman in the city’s history to lead the Atlanta Police Department.
In 1994, Beverly Harvard was named the first black woman in the position. Shields said at a press conference Thursday, “not to slight other cities,” but Atlanta has always had a higher standard.
“Atlanta is a terrific spot to police if you are any sort of minority and the reason is the city’s history makes it aware of and embraces its diversity,” Shields said. “I firmly believe that my career has benefited enormously from the fact that I have been committed to and employed by the city of Atlanta.”
Shields started as a patrol officer 21 years ago and has served as Deputy Chief of Support Services for the past five years.
Reed said he was considering five internal candidates for the position and she was the most qualified.
“Given where we are and the instability of the current environment overall, we did not have 90 days to spend on a search when I think I’ve got the right leader right here,” Reed said. “I really didn’t want to take the other candidates through a public process, because I really had settled on the individual that I wanted and I thought that would have been dishonest and damaging to some really fine leaders.”
Shields was in charge of integrating 8,000 of the city’s cameras at APD’s Video Integration Center and has led its training academy, corporate services, information services and E-911 center.
“Her in-depth research on technology that supports crime analysis will prove vital to the future of fighting crime in Atlanta,” Reed said of Shields.
Shields will take over retiring police chief George Turner’s role on Dec. 29.
Turner said he plans to help his son take care of his family after the death of his daughter-in-law, who was an Atlanta police officer and died this year after a long battle with cancer.
“My intent is to really try to help him be a single father and to get back to work he loves so desperately being an Atlanta police officer and financially I needed to do that,” Turner said.
Turner stepped down Wednesday after 35 years with the police department. He spent six years as police chief leading the effort in the decrease of crime in Atlanta.
But the police department has still fallen under criticism in other areas during Turner’s tenure such as their inability to recruit new officers and officer’s lack of pay to meet the city’s rising housing costs.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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