Tony Bouza

Anthony Vila Bouza (October 4, 1928 – June 26, 2023) was an American police officer who served in the New York City Police Department and as police chief of the Minneapolis Police Department from 1980 to 1989. Born on October 4, 1928, in Ferrol, Galicia, Spain, Bouza came to the United States with his family at age nine. The family settled in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. He graduated from Manual Training High School in Brooklyn in 1947. He served in the U.S. Army, and then worked briefly in sales in the garment industry in Manhattan.Bouza joined the New York City Police Department in 1953. He was promoted to inspector in 1971, deputy chief inspector in 1972, and assistant chief in 1973. He served in the NYPD until 1976. In 1976, Bouza was featured in the seminal TV documentary The Police Tapes. He served as Deputy Chief of the New York City Transit Police from 1977 to 1979.Donald Fraser, who was newly elected as mayor of Minneapolis in 1980, brought in Bouza to be his police chief. Fraser wanted an outsider and a reformer to head the department following a series of scandals under his predecessor. He retained Bouza for a total of three three-year terms.Bouza had a difficult relationship with the police officers he led in Minneapolis. Within weeks of becoming chief, Bouza reduced the number of police precincts from 6 to 4 and replaced two-member squads with single-member squads in most of the city. Officers blamed the 1981 murder of police officer Richard P. Miller on the switch to single-member squads. In a cost-cutting move, he also instituted a promotion freeze that ran until 1986.After stepping down as chief, Bouza served as Minnesota gaming commissioner from 1989 to 1991 and then briefly as director of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in Washington, D.C. In 1994, Bouza unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Farmer Labor Party nomination for Governor of Minnesota. He lost the nomination to John Marty.After retiring from policing, Bouza testified for the defense in many trials across the country alleging police mistreatment.