Cynthia Brown

Cynthia Brown is the publisher and founder of American Police Beat, the nation’s largest law enforcement publication with over 250,000 people reading each issue. Cynthia founded American Police Beat in 1994 with the goal of creating a way for law enforcement people to communicate with each other about the most pressing issues and concerns facing their profession. Brown was inspired to undertake this project after working for several years for the Boston Police Department doing a number of varied tasks including facilitating meetings between beat cops and residents in one of the city’s most crime-plagued neighborhoods. Bill Bratton, former police chief in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles was her boss. For several years she published a neighborhood newsletter for Boston’s five police districts.

Cynthia is also a founding member of the Police Union Leadership Seminar, a three day annual event run in conjunction with Harvard University that is attended by the presidents of the largest police associations in the country. In 2009, at Cynthia’s invitation, Attorney General Eric Holder came to Cambridge to speak to the participants and answer questions about the Obama administration’s agenda for the Department of Justice. In 2010 Janet Napolitano, secretary of Homeland Security also came to Harvard to speak to the police association leaders at Cynthia’s invitation.

In 2006 Cynthia was awarded the prestigious “Jack Webb Award” by the City of Los Angeles for her service to the law enforcement profession in California. Previous Jack Webb Award winners include California Senator Dianne Feinstein; former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Daly; former California Governor Pete Wilson, Jay Leno, Jack Nicholson; and Steven Bochco the creator of Hill Street Blues, LA Law, and NYPD Blue.

She is the recipient of many awards for her work including the most prestigious honor in law enforcement, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s Distinguished Service Award. Former recipients have included several U.S. Senators, and former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of Cynthia’s commitment to public safety professionals came after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. When it became apparent these storms were going to be a total disaster for hundreds of law enforcement agencies and tens of thousands of officers, with Sheriff Mike Brown of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department in Virginia, she organized an effort that raised over $4 million dollars in cash and equipment for the local police and sheriff’s departments who had been devastated by the hurricanes.