BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Baton Rouge Police Chief’s resignation left more questions than answers. Tuesday, he sat down with BRPROUD in a one-on-one interview to discuss why he is leaving and what he will be doing next.
Chief Murphy Paul announced his resignation roughly two weeks ago. He said that his decision to leave his post is bittersweet.
“It’s a lot of mixed emotions,” Paul said. “My lady said just like you prayed to take the job, you have to pray to leave the job.”
He came into this role five and a half years ago, staying longer than the average Chief of Police. With a six-point plan in hand, he had clear goals laid out in his new role. One is to change the culture of the department after years of discriminatory hiring and community distrust.
“Knowing what I know now, I probably would have been a little more strategic in how I presented change,” Paul admitted. “Changing a culture is hard. So, our focus was changing policies, changing training because I tie that directly to behavior, right, the accountability piece the transparency piece.”
He will stay in his role until his replacement is selected by the Mayor-President. The goal is to narrow down the candidates by November of this year.
“I think there is a lot of talent within this organization that are ready and I think some would do a better job than me because they saw the mistakes I made right,” said Paul.
Paul isn’t revealing exactly what he will be doing next but said he’s entertaining several options in the private sector.
“Little consulting opportunities that are rewarding in terms of making sure that I can still serve but just in a different capacity,” said Paul. “But it’s not a chief of police position let me put it out there, I’m not looking to be a Chief of Police right now.”
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