By Laura DeKoven Waxman
February 23, 2009

It is expected that President Barack Obama will soon nominate a longtime ally of The U.S. Conference of Mayors to be Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Reports began circulating February 11 that R. Gil Kerlikowske, currently Seattle’s Police Chief and President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, has agreed to serve as the nation’s next drug czar.

Kerlikowske has worked in partnership with the Conference for many years. Most recently he has participated in the Conference’s National Forum on Crime, held in Philadelphia in August, and in the working group formed following the meeting to write the organizations’ crime agenda; secured the endorsement of the Major Cities Chiefs Organization for that crime agenda; and addressed the Conference’s Criminal and Social Justice Committee during the recent Winter Meeting in Washington. In the mid'1990’s, when he was Police Chief in Buffalo and President of the Police Executive Research Forum, Kerlikowske was a key participant in a national summit on drug control organized by the Conference of Mayors and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

“President Obama’s choice of Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the next Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy is good for our cities and for our nation,” commented Conference CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. “Chief Kerlikowske, who has worked with The U.S. Conference of Mayors for many years, is a top'flight police chief who understands the complexity of the drug problem and its impact on our cities. We look forward to working with him to build the federal'state'local partnership needed to reduce the use and trafficking of the illegal drugs that continue to plague this nation.”

Chief Kerlikowske, a 36'year law enforcement veteran, has served as Seattle’s Police Chief for the last eight years. He is the former deputy director of the COPS Office at the Justice Department; prior to that he served as Police Commissioner in Buffalo, and Police Chief in Fort Pierce and Port St. Lucie, Florida. He began his career as a police officer in St. Petersburg in 1972.