Miami Officer Picked to Be Ferguson Police Chief

Maj. Delrish Moss, a former homicide detective who serves as spokesman for the Miami Police Department, has been named the new chief of police for Ferguson, MO, the city announced late Thursday afternoon.

Moss was one of four finalists announced about a month ago to replace Thomas Jackson, who resigned after a Justice Department report strongly criticized the city's police and municipal court practices. That report was triggered by the controversial shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson officer in 2014, setting off riots, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch .

"Our officers have worked extremely hard to implement community policing and community engagement in their daily practices," City Manager De'Carlon Seewood said in a prepared statement. "Mr. Moss is the right man for the job to continue those initiatives."

Moss has been the Miami Police Department's public voice for controversies ranging from use-of-force issues to whether officers miffed at a Super Bowl performance by Beyoncé might refuse to work security at a subsequent concert. He joined the department in 1984.

He is president of the Miami Police Athletic League, which reaches out to youths, and is on the board of the Urban League of Greater Miami and an organization called A Safe Haven for Newborns. He also is a member of the NAACP, National Association of Black Journalists and Tender Essence Inc., which deals with issues such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse and violence.