Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin removed two members of Police Chief Scott Thurmond's command staff. According to reports, the positions of assistant police chief and deputy chief were vacated.
La'Quaylin Parhm Mack, who served as assistant police chief, was appointed by Woodfin as the first woman to serve as assistant chief of police in 2021. She has been with the department for 19 years.
As second in command, Mack was in charge of policy oversight, recruitment and retention, strategic planning, budget administration, procurement, grant proposals, and special projects, and she also served as the personnel officer.
Shelia Frazier-Finney, who served as deputy chief of the Investigative Bureau, has served with the department for nearly 30 years. She has managed programs such as the Community Safety Partnership Division, Community Service Division, and the Chaplaincy program and served as a detective.
Frazier-Finney is also a member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the National Association of Women Executive Law Enforcement (NAWLEE).
Lt. Rodarius Mauldin was appointed deputy chief of administration.
The mayor's office has contacted the local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) this month over concerns about the department's morale. On June 11, FOP Lodge #1 vice president Lawrence Billups said he was trying to get attention to issues facing the department and that officers have left due to low morale.
Billups blamed a lack of leadership on officers leaving and planning to leave. He said the department had 300 officer positions that needed to be filled. Billups said that, in his 33 years, he had never seen the Birmingham Police Department's morale as low as it had been in the last seven years.
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