RETIRED DEA ADMINISTRATOR SAYS HE'S PREPARED TO LEAD THE AUSTIN
POLICE DEPARTMENT

Candidate Began His 32-Year Law Enforcement Career In Texas

Community policing starts at the top, says Donnie R. Marshall, one of
the nine finalists to be Austin's new chief of police.

If he is selected to lead the Austin Police Department, one of his
top priorities will be connecting with as many Austinites as
possible, particularly in the minority and business communities and
with church and civic leaders.

Donnie Marshall Finalist served as DEA administrator under President Bush.

* Interview with Donnie R. Marshall

* Police chief search: Interviews, biographies and more "I would be
involved in the community really 24 hours a day minus my sleeping
time," said Marshall, who served as head of the 11,000-person U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration from 1999 to 2001.

Understanding the interests of the diverse Austin community and
promoting that same understanding within the police force is
necessary to have a successful department, the 60-year-old said.

The department's use of force, particularly deadly force, would be
the first real policy he would examine if he becomes chief, Marshall
said. The department has drawn criticism in recent years for its
disproportionate use of force against minorities.

Marshall's DEA leadership is not totally parallel to heading a local
police department but has many similarities, he said.

Those differences raise concerns with Nelson Linder, president of the
Austin National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Coming in from a federal standpoint would be a major disadvantage
given the fact that, at that level, you are very much disconnected
from a lot of the local issues," Linder said. "On a local level, a
police chief here would deal with union issues, civil service law,
and also police brutality and misconduct."

While serving as DEA administrator under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush, Marshall says he promoted cooperation with state and
local law enforcement to help community action groups with their drug
prevention, education and treatment efforts.

He helped establish Red Ribbon Week, a nationwide drug awareness program.

Marshall supported community efforts to combat drug problems, said
Calvina Fay, executive director of Drug Free America Foundation, a
national and international organization that promotes effective
anti-drug policies and strategies.

Fay worked with Marshall and described his leadership style as "a
combination of informal, easy to access him, but yet formal enough
that he was respected and in command."

Born in Dallas in 1947, Marshall worked his way through Stephen F.
Austin State University as a firefighter in Nacogdoches. He began his
career as a DEA special agent in Dallas and Houston and came to
Austin in 1972 to lead the Office of Drug Abuse Law Enforcement, a
combined task force of local, state and federal officers. In addition
to his administrative duties, Marshall worked as an undercover
officer. He worked closely with leaders in the Austin department.

Marshall led by example in his work ethic and his integrity, said
Milton Shoquist, who served as an Austin police officer from August
1964 until he left to work for the DEA in 1977.

"He always used good common sense and good judgment in his approach
to investigations and dealing with people," Shoquist said. "People
followed him because of his abilities and his leadership."

After Austin, Marshall coordinated the DEA's efforts in Brazil for
four years before returning to the DEA in the U.S.

Marshall moved to the private sector in 2001 and worked in executive
positions at three security companies that cater to mostly government
agencies. Most recently, Marshall worked as president and general
manager of Omnisec International Investigations Inc. He is retired.

Marshall, who is married and has three children, described his time
in Austin as "probably the best three years that I spent in my career."

"It's always been a dream of mine to come back to Austin because they
treated me so very well as a young man," Marshall said, "and I didn't
know much about Austin at the time, and I just fell in love with it."