Benny Napoleon

Benny N. Napoleon
Sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan
Incumbent
Assumed office 2009
Preceded by	Warren Evans
Constituency	Michigan Tether Manufacturers
Personal details
Born	1952 Detroit
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	None
Alma mater	Mercy College of Detroit
Profession	Police officer

Benny Napoleon (born 1952) is an American police officer, the current Sheriff of Wayne County, Michigan and a candidate for Election to Mayor of Detroit.

A Democrat, Benny entered Detroit politics in 2013, announcing his intentions to run for mayor in the city's non-partisan primary to replace Dave Bing, who announced he would not seek re-election after the appointment of an emergency manager for the city.

Early Life

Benny Napoleon was born and raised in Detroit.

Napoleon was recruited to the police academy in 1975 during Mayor Coleman A. Young’s drive to diversify Detroit’s police force. He was rapidly rising through the ranks of the Detroit Police Department (DPD), as one of the youngest ever of each rank. Napoleon attended Mercy College of Detroit full-time at night, earning his undergraduate and law degrees. In 1995, at the age of 43, Napoleon was appointed Chief of Police, the youngest in Detroit history and the youngest of any major American city.

In 2001, Napoleon retired from DPD to join the largest African American owned real-estate firm in America – Capri Capital – as executive vice president of business development and outreach for Capri’s multi-family housing sector.

Police career

As Chief of Police, Napoleon developed and executed an unprecedented restructuring plan that led to a 30 percent reduction in violent crime at a time when major crimes appeared to be spiraling out of control. He had a “no tolerance policy” for corruption, emphasized by his move to call on the FBI to conduct an independent investigation on his own officers when drugs mysteriously disappeared from the police evidence room. That investigation led to the arrest and conviction of all DPD personnel involved. And when the community questioned incidents of police shootings of civilians, he partnered again with federal authorities for another independent investigation.

In 2004, he was appointed Assistant Wayne County Executive, responsible for government relations, labor relations, and homeland security. In this role, he was responsible for establishing and sustaining working relationships with county commissioners, other elected officials, and labor organizations in order to move the county’s agenda. During his tenure, Napoleon was also responsible for securing federal grants for local homeland security preparedness in Wayne County. Napoleon led efforts, working with 42 cities within the county, to make first responder communications inter-operable in case of a security threat.

Wayne County Sheriff

He was appointed Wayne County Sheriff in 2009, retained in 2010 and re-elected in 2012. As Sheriff, Napoleon continually exceeded his budget, despite claiming to restructur the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office to reduce operational costs by $30 million without compromising public safety. The cost-cutting measures include restructuring the absentee job pool to slash critical overtime expenses and expanding the a no-bid tether program for a campaign donor[1] from 50 inmates to as many as 600. Further, he led a crackdown on burglaries in two Detroit neighborhoods through the short-lived SCOUT program, a successful neighborhood watch program he ended because of budget priorities[2]. He also faced criticism over no-bid contracts[3], a high number of political appointees[4], and his failure to ever successfully manage a budget [5]. According to the Detroit Free Press, the FBI is currently investigating contracts signed by his office.[6]

Mayoral election

Napoleon is running for mayor of [Detroit] and has been endorsed by his father [7]. During the primary campaign, he referred to himself as a "businessman with a badge" [8].

See also

• Detroit mayoral election, 2013

External links

• Official Website
• Official Facebook Homepage