NEW YORK ? Patrick Murphy, a police reformer who urged officers to hold their fire as head of the New York, Detroit and Washington police during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, has died at age 91.
Murphy died Friday of a heart attack at a hospital in Wilmington, N.C., his son, Gerard Murphy, said.
"Pat Murphy was the visionary embodiment of police reform," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a written statement. "In the face of fierce opposition from entrenched police leadership nationally, he revolutionized policy to restrain the use of deadly force."
Murphy was born in Brooklyn and became a police patrolman after serving as a Navy pilot in World War II. He rose to become the top police official in Syracuse, N.Y., then Washington and Detroit.
In 1968, Murphy ordered police to use restraint in controlling the riots that wracked Washington following the killing of Martin Luther King Jr.
New York Mayor John Lindsay brought in Murphy in 1970 to lead the NYPD after corruption allegations rocked the police department.
In 1972, he instituted new rules restricting the use of deadly force to situations in which police needed to defend a life. He led the NYPD until the end of Lindsay's term in 1973.
Murphy later became a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and spent 12 years as president of the Police Foundation, an advocacy group. He also helped found the Police Executive Research Forum.
"Police chiefs across the nation recognize Patrick Murphy as an icon in the field of policing, and agree that he played a historic role in changing the landscape of policing for the better," the Police Executive Research Forum said Wednesday.
Murphy's survivors include his wife, Betty Murphy, and eight children.
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