CCJ Directory

Darrel Stephens consults on a wide range of police leadership and management issues. He served as Executive Director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association from October 2010 through October 2018. He was a member of the faculty of the Public Safety Leadership Program at Johns Hopkins University in the School of Education as an Instructor from June 2008 to June 2013. He is an accomplished police executive with 50 years of experience. His career began as a police officer in Kansas City, Missouri in 1968. He has 22 years experience in a police executive capacity including almost nine years from September 1999 to June 2008 as the Chief of the 2100 member Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). In addition to his police experience, he served for 2 years as the City Administrator in St. Petersburg, Florida. He served as the President, Vice President and Legislative Committee Chair of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association while Chief in Charlotte.

He received the Police Executive Research Forum’s Leadership Award and was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration in 2005. In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from Central Missouri State University. In 2010, he was inducted into the Evidence-Based Policing Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Evidence-Based Crime Policy from the George Mason University’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. In 2017, he received the Sir Robert Peel Medal for Evidence Based Policing from the Police Executive Program at Cambridge University. He also received the Major Cities Chiefs Association 2017 Leadership Award.