| Ella M. Bully-Cummings | |
|---|---|
| Detroit Police Department | |
| Born 1958 (age 53–54) | |
| Place of birth | Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan |
| Service branch | United States |
| Years of service | 1977 - 2008 |
| Rank | Sworn in as an Officer - 1977 Sergeant - 1987 Lieutenant - 1993 Captain - 1995 Commander - 1998 Asst. Chief - 2002 Chief of Police - 2003 |
Ella M. Bully-Cummings (born 1958) became the first female police chief of Detroit, the tenth-largest police force in the United States, when Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appointed her on November 3, 2003.
She is married to Attorney William Cummings, a retired Detroit police commander. She was previously married to former Wayne County Sheriff, former Detroit Police Chief Warren C. Evans.
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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 turned two.
The family struggled financially and at one point the large family lived in a one-bedroom apartment. However, Chief Bully-Cummings credits her father with encouraging her, her six sisters, and one brother to get their education and pursue whatever they wanted.
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. 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. 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.
In July 1999 retired from the department to become a staff attorney first at Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC, then at Foley & Lardner, and finally back at Miller Canfield. She represented management in employment cases that involved federal and state discrimination.
In 2002 she was called back into service by Mayor Kilpatrick as an Assistant Chief of Police, the first female appointed to assistant chief position in Detroit. She was charged with overseeing Management Services, Training, Personnel, Science & Technology, and Risk Management bureaus, collectively called the Administrative Portfolio.
After the resignation of Chief Jerry Oliver in 2003, Bully-Cummings was appointed as interim chief. She became permanent in 2004.
The Detroit Police are now under the supervision of U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. until 2008 per a U.S. Justice Department investigation.
Bully-Cummings was held in contempt of court in late 2005 for not reinstating four inspectors and three commanders, who were let go as a part of the restructuring of the police department to save money. A total of 150 police personnel were laid off. [1]
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and police chief Bully-Cummings were named in a slander lawsuit brought about by Detroit Police officers Zack Weishuhn and Patrick Tomsic, who claimed that they were slandered in the media by city officials.
The lawsuit stemmed from a 2004 incident in which the two police officers pulled Beatty over for speeding. The officers claimed that Beatty was irate at being stopped and bluntly asked the officers, "Do you know who the fuck I am?" when the officers came to the vehicle.[1] The officers alleged that, while stopped, Beatty called Police Chief Bully-Cummings to have the officers called off, which they were ordered to do. When reports of the incident started to surface in the media, Kilpatrick, Beatty and Bully-Cummings all claimed that the traffic stop was some type of "set-up" to harass Beatty.[2]
As part of a settlement, the Detroit City Council voted to approve a $25,000 mediation recommendation to the two officers in February 2008, after previously rejecting the settlement twice. [3]
On September 4, 2008, Bully-Cummings announced her retirement minutes after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury and resigned from office as part of a plea deal. Bully-Cummings offered to assist her successor in transitioning to the duties of Police Chief if asked to do so. [4]