Kansas City, Kan., Police Assistant Chief James Brown has been named police chief of Topeka, Kan.
Lt. Col. Brown will begin his new post on Oct. 1, according to an announcement Friday in Topeka.
In a news release, Topeka City Manager Jim Colson stated that Brown had a “substantial skill set and commitment to community policing.”
“I am proud that the city of Topeka was able to recruit a police chief the caliber of James Brown,” Colson said in the news release.
Brown was the head of the Bureau of Services in the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department. Areas served by this department included traffic enforcement, narcotic enforcement, tactical response, federal task force operations and records. Brown has served as a community policing officer, a patrol sergeant, member of the SWAT team, bomb squad commander, professional standards unit commander, media relations officers and commander of the technical services division.
Brown, who has a bachelor’s in criminal justice and master’s in public affairs from Park University, is also a command chief master sergeant in the Kansas Air National Guard.
Brown replaces Chief Ronald Lee Miller, who retired recently as Topeka police chief. Miller is a former Kansas City, Kan., Police Department chief, who is awaiting U.S. Senate confirmation as U.S. marshal for Kansas.
Kansas City, Kan., also has been conducting a search for a police chief.