Staff
The El Paso Journal
Tuesday, January 17, 2023 | 4:47 p.m.
Step.- El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, who led the department for nearly 15 years, died Tuesday.
Deputy Chief Zina Silva announced her death in an email to officers Tuesday afternoon.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share this sad news that our beloved leader, Police Chief Gregory K. Allen, has passed away today to be with God,” he told staff.
Allen has been El Paso’s police chief since 2008, the first African-American to hold that rank.
He joined the department in 1978 and rose through the ranks. He was also a martial artist and in 1995 he was inducted into the El Paso Boxing and Martial Arts Hall of Fame.
During Allen’s tenure as chief, El Paso was repeatedly ranked the safest city in the country based on crime data reported to the FBI.
But Allen’s tenure was also fraught with controversy. In 2016, he referred to Black Lives Matter as “a radical hate group.”
Last year, in an unprecedented step, the El Paso City Council voted to settle a lawsuit by paying $1.2 million to a family that claimed Allen’s poor policies and leadership led to the 2015 shooting of Erik Salas Sánchez. The 22-year-old man was in a mental health crisis when he was fatally shot by a police officer at his parents’ home.
