Dallas police chief David Brown, who came under the spotlight for his response to the fatal ambush of five officers in the US city, has announced his retirement.
Chief Brown will step down on October 22, ending a 33-year career which saw him emerge as a national figure as the Texas city reeled from last month's deadly attack.
Brown was thrust into public view after a gunman shot and killed five officers in Dallas on July 7, just as a crowd of peaceful protesters was concluding a march against deadly police shootings of black Americans.
Addressing a press conference in the assault's aftermath, Brown, who is black, was asked how people could help Dallas. "Serve your communities," he said.
"We're hiring," Brown said, "Get off that protest line and put an application in."
Following that call, the Dallas Police Department reported an "unprecedented" 344 percent surge in applications to join the force.
Brown's own story encapsulates the painful tensions surrounding policing, race and gun violence in America.
Shortly after Brown took the helm of the Dallas police force in 2010, his 27-year-old son, David Brown Jr, fatally shot an officer and another man while high on drugs, before being killed by police.
In announcing his "difficult decision" to retire, Brown said he had become a cop to solve the problems of the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic.
"I wanted to be part of the solution," he said in a written statement yesterday in which he once again praised the five officers killed in July.
"Their memory will remain with all of us forever. I know the people of Dallas will never forget the ultimate sacrifice they made on the streets of our city that awful night."
The five officers were killed by Micah Xavier Johnson, a black army veteran who confessed to wanting to kill cops in retaliation for brutality towards African Americans. Johnson died in a standoff with police.
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