Here’s what police chief candidate Avery Moore has to say about issues facing Tacoma
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Choosing the next chief
Meet the finalists in the running to lead the Tacoma Police Department.
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Here’s what police chief candidate Avery Moore has to say about issues facing Tacoma
Avery Moore wants to become chief of the Tacoma Police Department to bring unity to the department and the community and to strengthen the morale of its officers.
He feels he has a lot to learn from Tacoma, and that Tacoma can learn from him.
“I’m coming from the South. I’m a change agent,” said Moore. “I’m not new to policing — 31 years. I’ve been in a leadership position for 15 years. I’m assistant chief at the ninth largest department in the country ... Dallas is highly diversified. Tacoma’s diversified and I know how to navigate that.”
Moore, 55, is one of four finalists for the Tacoma police chief position. City officials have said they will make a decision in December.
Moore lives with his family, including three sons, in Dallas and is the assistant chief of police for the Investigations Bureau at the Dallas Police Department. The Dallas Police Department has 3,150 sworn officers and there are 865 in the Investigations Bureau.
A records request by The News Tribune requesting the personnel file of Moore and any existing disciplinary records is pending with the Dallas Police Department.
Moore began in law enforcement as a police officer more than 30 years ago and has since held leadership titles, including lieutenant of police, sergeant of police and senior corporal of police. Moore holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix at Dallas and a bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.
This summer, Moore was on the short list of candidates applying to be police chief for the Columbus and Austin police departments, according to news reports.
When Moore found out Tacoma was hiring a new police chief, he did some research on the city and thought he had successful strategies he could implement in Tacoma.
“Really, my platform is community policing. I don’t think you can be an effective police department and provide public safety, reduce crime going around without the public support,” Avery told The News Tribune in an interview in November during a finalists panel discussion in Tacoma.
Of the work Moore is proud of, he mentioned a three-phase crime plan he helped implement in Dallas. The plan, implemented in May, starts with hotspot policing, then place-specific investigations where crime is common, and then focused deterrence.
“It’s all about reducing victims. Last check, we’ve been able to reduce over 800 victims to violent crimes, which is a significant reduction in violent crime and overall crime in the city of Dallas,” Moore said.
Tacoma has seen a rise of violent crimes in the past year, and TPD has been working to address the issue. Tacoma is also struggling with recruiting and retaining police officers, and Moore said he also has experience tackling that issue in Dallas.
Moore said Dallas PD started with hiring a marketing firm to show how to market properly, then determined what the need was.
“We needed more people of color, we needed more females. So that’s who we market it for. And that’s where we went in the community,” Moore said.
The department also partnered with high schools and was able to create a pipeline into the Dallas Police Department, Moore said.
“Those are the types of things that I would like to bring here,” Moore said. “I believe in this profession. I think it is honorable, and we have an opportunity to get people to come. We just have to be happy and proud about what we do.”
To do that, Moore also wants to boost the morale of police officers.
“We’re going to feed our officers positivity, so that their morale will go up. So we’re going to let them know that we appreciate the work they do,” he said, adding that using social media and strengthening relationships with media to share those stories is important.
When asked what he thinks the police department’s role is in addressing homelessness, as Tacoma works on an ordinance to ban camping on public property, Moore said that it’s a difficult question because it’s not criminal to be homeless.
Moore said that when it comes to encampment cleanups in Dallas, the city goes in with a team where the police are not the primary contact.
“Police, we’re only there in case something goes wrong,” Moore said.
The RIGHT Care team in Dallas consists of a behavior health worker, medical professional and police officer that has been successful in addressing homelessness or other behavioral health situations.
“It’s actually relieved a lot of the calls that officers have to go to,” Moore said.
Tacoma is looking at implementing a similar crisis response team that could respond to calls involving mental health crises and homelessness-related issues.
“That’s something that I would be wanting to try,” Moore said. “It’s hard to say that I could say it would work, because I just don’t know the dynamics of (Tacoma) well enough, but it’s something I’d certainly want to have a conversation about.”
Moore added that Dallas has been able to purchase a hotel to provide shelter for people who are moved to allow them to get back on their feet. Tacoma, in partnership with Pierce County, Lakewood and the Low Income Housing Institute, purchased the Comfort Inn on Hosmer Street for a similar effort at the end of October.
Another big issue in Tacoma is the use of force by officers. A News Tribune analysis this year found officers use force against Black people at roughly five times the rate they do against white people.
“I understand the systemic racism that’s associated with policing,” said Moore, who is Black. “I’ve been a victim of it personally, as well as professionally, so I know exactly what that’s like. I know that it’s real. I’m not afraid to talk about it.”
Moore said it’s important officers receive continual training about use of force.
“Because what you’ll find is a lot of times it’s diminishing,” Moore said. “They learn about it in their academy, but as the days pass, they forget really when you should (use force) and they think it becomes a right.”
Another piece is teaching officers the value of deescalation.
“The reality is officers shouldn’t want to use force, because it puts not only the person they’re using force against at risk, but it also puts them at risk,” Moore said.
This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
