Edward A. Flynn was appointed Chief of the Milwaukee Police Department in January of 2008. On January 8, 2016, he was sworn in for a third term. He commands an agency of 2,000 sworn officers and 700 civilians, serving a city of nearly 600,000 residents.

He was formerly Police Commissioner in Springfield, Massachusetts from 2006 to 2008. As the police chief executive, he was responsible for 470 officers and 100 civilians, serving a city of 155,000 residents.

Flynn served as Secretary of Public Safety under Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney from January 2003 until taking command in Springfield. He was responsible for a secretariat employing 10,000 that included the Massachusetts State Police, the Department of Corrections and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary of Public Safety, he served for five years as the Chief of Police in Arlington, Virginia. In this capacity, he was instrumental in the recovery effort at the Pentagon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

He began his career in the Jersey City Police Department, where he was promoted through the ranks of officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and inspector. He served as the Chief of Police in Braintree and subsequently Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Flynn is a member of the Police Executive Research Forum. He serves on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and Fight Crime Invest in Kids Executive Board. He is a member of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Session on Policing. He is a past recipient of the prestigious Gary Hayes Memorial Award for Police Leadership from the Police Executive Research Forum.

He holds a B.A. in history from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, a Masters degree in Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and completed all course work in the Ph.D. program in criminal justice from the City University in New York.