Bully-Cummings, Ella (1958-)

Ella May Bully was working in the ticket booth of a Detroit theater in the mid-1970s when she saw an unusual sight: a woman police officer patrolling Detroit's streets. Three years later, the 19-year-old high school graduate decided to try walking the same beat; 23 years later she became only the second African American female named chief of one of the 10 largest police departments in the nation.

When Bully entered the Detroit Police Department (DPD) Academy in July 1977, she faced hostility from the mostly White male officers who resented the city's affirmative efforts to integrate the department. But she persevered, serving in every rank until, on November 3, 2003 (now Bully-Cummings), she was named interim chief of the 4,200-member DPD by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who on December 4 of that year removed the interim from her title. Although Kilpatrick described Bully-Cummings's rise through the ranks as “meteoric,” her career is typical of large-city police executives; she worked only in one police department, served in many ranks and assignments, and continued her education while working. This resulted in strong internal support for her, the opposite of what she faced as a rookie officer.

Bully-Cummings was born in Japan in 1958, the second daughter of an African American U.S. Army serviceman and a Japanese mother. Before she turned 2 years old, the family moved to Detroit, where her Mississippi-born father worked as a television repairman and struggled to support the family, which grew to six daughters and one son, all of whom at one time lived in a one-bedroom apartment. She graduated from Cass Technical, Detroit's top academic high school. As the second-oldest child, she worked to increase the family's income and to help pay for her siblings' education, but she did not continue her education until after joining the police department. She received a bachelor's degree with honors in public administration from Detroit's Madonna University in 1993 and a juris doctorate cum laude from the Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University in 1998, passing the state bar exam the same year.

Like most officers, Bully-Cummings was given a first assignment of walking a foot post. She recalled that few men wanted to work with women; some men would feign illness or give other reasons to avoid working with women, in part because they believed women would be unable to assist in dangerous situations on the high-crime Detroit streets. Even the few men who would work with her showed their distrust by using their portable radios to call for backup before they arrived at a scene. Her first arrest involved a drunk-driving stop during which her partner was kicked in the groin. Bully-Cummings, at 5 foot, 8 inches and only 110 pounds, jumped on the 6-foot, 5-inch suspect's back so she would not be hit and so that he would not flee; she knew that if he did, her reputation would be ruined. Just as she was establishing credibility, Detroit, like many cities, was faced with a [Page 86]fiscal crisis, and Bully-Cummings was laid off in the mid-1980s, and began work for the Detroit Free Press in a clerical position.

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