Interim police chief appointed in Durham as Chief CJ Davis set to leave for Memphis job
Deputy Chief Shari Montgomery has been appointed as the interim police chief to replace Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis after she leaves for a new job.
The appointment was announced Thursday by Durham City Manager Wanda Page.
Davis is leaving Durham June 11 to become the police chief in Memphis, Tennessee.
Montgomery, who has been with the department for 22 years, will start serving in her new role June 12.
“Deputy Chief Montgomery’s 22 years of service in the Police Department as well as to the Durham community make her an excellent choice to serve in the interim chief position as recruitment begins for a new police chief,” Page said in a news release.
“Montgomery is a well-respected leader in the department who has risen through the ranks over the last two decades, and I’m happy that she was willing to provide continuity until a new police chief is named.”
Montgomery has been with the police department since March 1999. She was promoted to deputy chief in May 2020, and was in charge of the department’s Administrative Services Bureau, which provides community services, planning and analytical services. She is now assigned to the Investigative Services Bureau, which is in charge of investigating crimes and forensics, according to the department website.
Montgomery will be taking over as chief as Durham saw a record number of shootings last year. The city reported 318 people were shot, almost a 70% increase over the 189 people shot in 2019. It was the most people shot since at least 2016, when the department began tracking the data, The News & Observer has reported.
Last year, the Durham Police Department cleared only a quarter of the gun-related homicides and less than a tenth of the reported shooting incidents. The national average for murder clearance rates has been between 59% and 63% in recent years, The N&O reported.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 2:58 PM with the headline "Interim police chief appointed in Durham as Chief CJ Davis set to leave for Memphis job."