Chief Gerald Smith walks outside Richmond Police headquarters on Grace Street in Downtown to a news conference on July 27, 2020, following two nights of uprisings in the city. The building had been boarded up and barricaded by a city dump truck, which was burned by demonstrators protesting police abuse and racial injustice. The chief had been on the job less than a month.
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Jury still out
After a year on the job, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith has not won over many officers or residents either through style or substance
A year ago, Gerald M. Smith was introduced to the city as an “innovator” and a “reform-minded change agent” as Mayor Levar M. Stoney introduced him as Richmond’s new police chief.