Leslie Murray takes reins as Downey police chief
DOWNEY — Leslie Murray officially took the reins as Downey’s police chief this week.
Growing up in the cities of Bellflower and Norwalk, Murray eventually found herself within Downey Unified School District in the 8th grade. She would go on to complete her secondary education within Downey, ultimately graduating from Downey High School in 1986.
Murray pursued higher learning at California State University, Long Beach, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1990.
At the time, a career in law enforcement was the last thing on her mind.
“Right up until the end, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do; I had no idea what I wanted to do,” said Murray. “People kept asking me ‘What are you going to do with a sociology degree,’ and I really didn’t know.”
“Some of the course work that I took was juvenile delinquency, law enforcement related, and that’s what kind of sparked my interest, but I still didn’t really have an idea what jobs were available, what career paths I might take.”
It truly wasn’t until her last semester of college that a fellow classmate – an Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy – pushed her to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“I never really seen too many women in law enforcement, especially where I live and work,” said Murray. “You know, I’m kind of small, I’m a female…He assured me, ‘Oh no, there’s a lot of women who work at Orange County that work the jails, that are on patrol. They’re all different sizes and shapes. You ought to look into it.’”
“From there on that’s where I started researching, and pretty much never looked back.”
Murray graduated in May. By August she was in the LA County Sheriff’s Academy.
Joining Downey PD in 1990 and having never left, Murray describes Downey as the “perfect fit.”
“If you’re going to give back to the community, what better way to do it than to give the one that served you,” said Murray. “I went to schools here, I had amazing teachers at Downey High School, my first part-time job was at the Broadway in Downey…but then I also had a part-time job over at Downey High School working on a work program.”
“I just never really left.”
Murray added that there was also a sense of familiarity.
“The other thing that pulled me to Downey was having grown up here, I knew people who had become police officers that I had gone to high school with or worked with, and so I already kind of had that pull to Downey.”
Her younger brother worked with DPD. Even her husband – which whom she married early in her career – was a sergeant in the department.
“I had the family ties. I had community ties. I had friends who worked here,” said Murray. “It’s continued to be that same family environment working here.”
Murray descries herself as “driven,” so her ascension through the ranks should come as no surprise.
“I had aspirations of doing the best job I could do; I guess that’s the best way to say it,” said Murray. “I never really saw anything that would get in my way, I just wanted to come to work and do a good job. I wanted to do well in this profession.”
Murray would work patrol for a few years before eventually being selected to work the detective bureau, where she would conduct sex crime and child abuse investigations.
“That was difficult,” said Murray. “I did it for three years, and three years was about max.”
“It’s some heavy stuff you deal with. You really have so much empathy for people…You feel like it’s a very worthwhile thing that you’re doing, but those kinds of cases stick with you.”
Murray moved on to community relations and training before promoting to sergeant in 2000, and then on to lieutenant for 10 years.
She was promoted to captain in 2018, overseeing the Detective Bureau.
Murray was the first female sergeant in department history. Then the first female lieutenant. Then the first female captain. She will be the first female chief.
It’s a distinction that Murray admits she has “mixed feelings” about.
“You always want to be recognized for who you are and what you bring to the plate,” said Murray. “You want to be recognized for your strengths, for your abilities, not necessarily just because you’re a woman.”
However, it was former police chief John Finch – after promoting Murray to sergeant - that taught her that “it’s not just about you.”
“He took me aside and said, ‘Listen, it’s not just about you. It’s about getting your face out there for other women; we want more women to be involved in the department. It brings more balance to the agency, it’s good for the department,’” she said.
Still, Murray hopes that one day women will promote and “not be the first.”
“I want it to be the norm, where it doesn’t matter who you are, what color, what gender, it’s just that you’re the best person for the job,” said Murray. “I think we’re at a place now where we’re so diverse, especially our department.”
“When I started here, we had three or four women, and now I think we have 19. It’s becoming more the norm.”
There have been plenty of hard discussions over the last several years around police enforcement, especially surrounding funding, transparency, and ethics.
Murray believes however that the core job and role of the police has not wavered.
“I think if you look at policing historically, we’ve seen changes over the decades and it’s become obviously more transparent,” said Murray. “At Downey at least, we’ve had cameras on our cars for 20 years now.”
“We’ve had all these different changes over the years, but the core job is the same: we’re always going to be first responders, we’re always going to be the agency that people look to. When bad things are happening, they want to be able to call the police and we show up. We’re always going to do that.”
She added that the responsibilities of police have expanded, and that seeking assistance from other partners may provide a better solution to how DPD navigates difficult situations.
“We’ve seen the expansion of our role into mental health situations, into the homeless, drug addiction has been a problem for years. We have all those different hats that we wear, and I think we’re moving towards more specialized policing and bringing other partners in,” said Murray. “Here at the police department in Downey, we brought in mental health clinicians from LA County. We’ve been doing that for years, and they ride in partnership with a police officer, and we’re open to that. I think we provide a better service that way.”
“We’re open to those kinds of changes. I think we can always provide better services in different ways. We’re still going to have some of the same challenges that we have now, but I think moving forward we’re always going to try and do our best to adapt to situations.”
Murray says that the department’s strength lies within its people.
“We have always had very high standards for the folks that we bring on to the department,” said Murray. “We look for people who are of good moral character, who are good decision makers, good critical thinkers.”
“There are no perfect people, but we’re looking for people who have that strong character, and then we build from that.”
This ties into her immediate goal to continue the hiring of more officers and development of its current staff.
“We have three people retiring at the end of this month, and we’ll have some retirements next year,” said Murray. “For us, it’s about bringing on good people to replace those positions.”
“We have a really young department too, a lot of our officers have been hired in the last five years, a good number of them. For me, it’s continuing to develop those people so that every step of the way we have people in place to take over those next positions. Succession planning is really important, and especially important for our department right now having such a young staff. When you lose people, you lose institutional knowledge, and it’s important to develop people.”
Murray said she is “humbled” to be the next chief.
“It’s a very proud moment for me,” said Murray. “For the community, I just promise to give them my best effort to be responsive to their needs, and to provide the best public safety services that I can.”
A ceremonial swear-in is scheduled for Jan. 5.