The following content is part of Police1’s Police Leader Playbook, a resource aimed at helping new law enforcement leaders move beyond basic management and supervision skills and become inspirational leaders with integrity and passion. Through a handful of questions presented by Police1, veteran leaders reflect on their early days in leadership roles and offer advice, while newer leaders detail their experiences taking on a new position. Email editor@police1.com to offer your insights for the Police Leader Playbook.
Chief Brandon Gurley has been part of the Brookhaven (Georgia) Police Department almost from the beginning, joining the agency in April 2013, just days after the city appointed its first police chief. His law enforcement career began in 1999 with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office and has included assignments in communications, corrections, patrol, investigations, community engagement, media relations and specialized teams. After serving in several leadership roles at Brookhaven, including division commander and deputy chief, Gurley was appointed chief in September 2022.
The Brookhaven Police Department serves Brookhaven, Georgia, a community of approximately 60,000 residents just northeast of Atlanta in DeKalb County. The full-service municipal agency, founded in 2013, has 99 sworn officers, 116 total full-time staff and seven part-time employees. In 2025, the agency responded to 85,405 calls for service. Brookhaven PD is state certified through the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police and operates a Real-Time Operations Center and Drone as First Responder program to support patrol operations.
What was the moment that set you on the path to becoming a chief?
I didn’t set out to become chief. I started in law enforcement at 19, working the 911 center for a few months before moving to the detention center as a jailer just before my 20th birthday. I graduated the police academy a few months before I turned 22.
Early in my career, other officers on my shift started using me as a reference. I had built a reputation for knowing the most recent case law, procedures and best practices. I became an informal leader with no rank before I even realized it was happening. Within a few years I was a field training officer, then a supervisor on patrol. I was the youngest person on my shift. I was also the one in charge.
That’s when I started to see the value in leading people and having influence over their professional journey. Supervisors and command staff members saw something in me before I saw it in myself. They handed me duties that far exceeded my rank and my pay grade. I could have taken that as being made to do their work. Instead, I embraced it as a chance to expand my experience. Eventually I saw the same potential and opportunity they had been preparing me for all along, and I knew my calling was to lead at a higher level.
What did you prioritize in your first 30 days, six months and first year as chief?
I wasn’t coming in as an outsider. I had already spent years in this department as a division commander and deputy chief, so my first 30 days weren’t about learning the organization. They were about setting the tone. I made it clear that our people, not just our numbers, would be the priority going forward, and I started spending more time riding with officers and listening to what they were actually dealing with on their shifts.
In my first six months, I focused on turning what I was hearing into a plan. That included building a more structured approach to leadership development and creating a three-year strategic plan with C3 Leadership.
By the end of my first year, we had introduced our Standards for Conduct and Collaboration and completed our first EQ-i assessment cycle with command staff and supervisors. That gave us a baseline to measure whether the work we were doing was actually changing how our leaders led.
How are you building a culture people want to join — and stay?
I started noticing early on that some of our most technically skilled people were struggling once we promoted them into leadership. They knew the job cold, but they could not lead people.
I had a sergeant like that. He was exceptional operationally and the first call anyone made with a tough legal question, but he could be dismissive with officers, quick to correct mistakes in front of peers and absent when his people needed him on difficult calls. We were promoting people based on what they knew, not whether they could lead, and we paid for that gap for years.
That realization drove me to build actual leadership infrastructure instead of relying on occasional training days. In my first year as chief, I contracted with C3 Leadership to help us build a leadership development program and a three-year strategic plan.
We introduced our Standards for Conduct and Collaboration, built around four principles: transparency and truth, communicating context, accountability and shared responsibility. Those principles set clear expectations for how our leaders operate.
We also started assessing every supervisor and command staff member using the EQ-i 2.0 emotional intelligence instrument. In 2025, we built emotional intelligence directly into our promotional process for sergeant and lieutenant, weighting it at 30% alongside operational readiness.
The results are real. Our average overall EQ score across command staff and supervisors rose from 109 to just over 115 across two assessment cycles, with the biggest gains in emotional self-awareness, empathy and interpersonal relationships.
Our turnover climbed above 20% during the roughest years of the pandemic and its aftermath. It dropped to 4.7% in 2024 and 4.2% in 2025. Our community satisfaction scores have also remained above 94%, based on a text survey sent to people after they call 911.
But none of that happens without the daily choices that back it up.
I am task-oriented by nature and always focused on what needs to get done. Left unchecked, that can turn you into a leader so consumed by the mission that you stop seeing the people carrying it out.
A few years ago, an officer returned from several weeks of leave after the birth of his child. Before I saw him, I looked up his baby’s name from the birth announcement that had gone out weeks earlier. Then I found him in the hallway, welcomed him back and asked about his newborn by name. More than five years later, he still tells that story. Programs and assessments build the framework. Moments like that are what actually make people want to stay.
How do you approach major decisions as chief?
I don’t make these decisions alone, and I don’t think I should. When I became chief, I built structure around three areas that used to run through me directly. I implemented a technology committee responsible for tracking, evaluating and recommending any new technology or innovative policing measure that fits our public safety needs. I implemented a policy committee tasked with keeping our policies current and recommending revisions before something becomes a problem instead of after. And I implemented an events and hospitality committee to handle promotional ceremonies, monthly birthday celebrations, annual awards lunches and dinners, and the other events throughout the year that make our people feel seen and heard. Each of those groups brings me a recommendation grounded in people who are closer to the issue than I am.
For anything major, whether it’s a new initiative, a big purchase, or a policy change, I want the facts and the data in front of me before I want an opinion, including my own. I built our Real-Time Operations Center and our Drone as a First Responder program this way, and I took the same approach when we brought in license plate readers through Flock Safety. New technology in policing has to be paired with governance, policy and training before or alongside the rollout, not after something goes wrong. Skipping that step is how good tools turn into bad headlines.
Resource allocation works the same way. I ask what the actual cost is against what we get back, and I don’t limit “what we get back” to operational metrics alone. The events and hospitality committee is a good example. It doesn’t show up on a crime stat sheet, but I protect that investment because I know what it does for how our people feel about working here, and that shows up everywhere else eventually, including retention.
At the end of it, I would rather be methodical and occasionally slower than fast and reckless. I’ve been described as a deliberate, detail-oriented decision maker who avoids rushing to conclusions, and that’s by design. The job comes with too many people and too much public trust riding on getting it right.
How do you demonstrate values-based leadership in your daily actions?
Values only matter if they show up in daily decisions. For me, that means being present and holding myself to the same expectations I have for my personnel.
I’ve chased a suspect on foot as a command staff officer, dress shoes and all. My people know I’m not managing this department from a distance. If I’m asking them to get their hands dirty, I’m willing to get mine dirty too.
Externally, standing up for my people doesn’t mean defending everything they do without question. When I spoke with CBS Evening News about license plate readers, I said plainly that the technology has saved lives in our city and that it has also been abused by officers elsewhere who broke the public’s trust. Both things are true, and pretending otherwise doesn’t protect anyone.
What protects my people is holding everyone to the same standard, publicly and internally, so that when I do stand behind an officer, my word actually means something to the community and to the people wearing the badge.
Caring about someone as a person and a professional means the same standard applies whether the cameras are on or off. My personnel know where I stand because they’ve watched me hold that line consistently, not just heard me say it.
Leadership lightning round
What is a leadership book, podcast or seminar you’ve found invaluable?
Simon Sinek’s “Leaders Eat Last” reshaped how I think about protecting the people who work for me before protecting myself.
How do you stay organized and manage your schedule?
I live by my calendar and rely on it to keep me organized and on task.
If budget were no issue, what is one investment you would make today?
I’d give every member of this department their own one-on-one executive coach, because I’ve seen firsthand what that kind of investment does for a leader’s growth, both personally and professionally.
What is one way leaders can show they care about their people?
Learn the small, personal details about your people, like a new baby’s name, and take the 30 seconds to use them.
At the end of the day, how do you recharge?
Spending time with my wife and teenage children enjoying a movie in our new entertainment room.
