GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- After months of working amid protests and civil unrest, the former Portland Deputy Police Chief says he's prepared for new beginnings.
"I will be the first one to admit that I was not perfect,"Ofc. Chris Davis said. "I haven't met a lot of people who can be under difficult circumstances like that. But I certainly wasn't. But I learned a lot from it."
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On Thursday, Davis was sworn in as the newest Green Bay police chief.
Emphasizing issues like gun violence, Davis says some crime is 'bigger than the police department.'
"I'm a big believer in community policing," he said. "And I think community policing works for a problem like gun violence as well."
Whether it's for the victim or the perpetrator, Davis believes community policing comes in the form of resources like mental health counseling and job training.
"Those are obviously not services that we typically provide in the police department, but that's a really important upstream community piece to reducing gun violence," he said.
As he starts the job, some of Davis' goals include investing in the health of his organization and furthering training efforts.
"The stress certainly impacts sworn members, officers, detectives [and] sergeants," he said. "But it also impacts our professional staff, because they're in here right alongside it."
As an outsider all the way from Oregon, the chief plans to fit in with the rest of the Green Bay community.
"Trust doesn't just show up because they make you the Chief of Police one day," Davis said. "You have to earn that. And you earn that one interaction at a time."
Davis started his former role in Portland back in late 2019. He's a graduate of both the FBI National Academy and the Police Executive Leadership Institute.
The Packer fan is taking over for former Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith, who retired earlier in 2021.
