MINNEAPOLIS — Former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza has died at the age of 94, according to family and friends.
The reform-minded New Yorker lead the Minneapolis Police Department for most of the 1980s, after being recruited by then-Mayor Don Fraser. Bouza grew up in poverty in New York after immigrating from Spain as a child with his family.
He rose through the ranks of the NYPD before coming to Minnesota, where he became known for his colorful straight talk and controversial stands on policing.
"Overall, I think he was a very effective chief and certainly a colorful person who was a part of Minneapolis' history," Steve Cramer, the Downtown Council CEO, told KARE.
"I had a disagreement with him about his contention that we didn’t have street gangs in Minneapolis. I think, in the end, he probably acknowledged that we did."
Cramer served on the Minneapolis City Council from 1984 to 1993 and in that capacity twice voted in favor of Bouza's reappointment as chief.
"He was the classic outsider coming and shaking things up that’s for sure. He had very strong opinions and he wasn’t shy about expressing them, but he also was committed to a police department that was very committed to the community."
Bouza won high marks from city leaders and some community groups for working to restore public trust in the police force, but also clashed with the police union over policy changes such as moving to a system of one officer per squad car.
"Tony, more than anything, was about reforming a police department, so it responded to the community, and taking dramatic action against the obscene proliferation of guns," former Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak, who now heads the Minneapolis Foundation, told KARE.
Rybak covered Bouza as a reporter for the Star Tribune, and later worked on the 1994 Bouza campaign for governor. The veteran cop lost the Democratic primary to Sen. John Marty after coming out for strong gun control laws.
"A month out in the primary Tony was leading in the polls, and he did that in part by being really honest with people. And when they asked him about guns, he was honest with them he said we have to take some really dramatic action," Rybak recalled.
"That became at that point political poison."
Bouza's wife Erica also made headlines by being arrested repeatedly at peace protests against Honeywell, which was targeted by demonstrators for producing warhead missile guidance systems.
"Tony I think was the first police chief, maybe the only one, who's ever brought cookies to his wife in jail after arresting her!" Rybak recalled.
When asked about is wife's political activism and arrests by KARE in 1985, Bouza delivered a tongue-in-cheek sound bite hoping the judge would go hard on her.
"I hope the judge will not be some wooly-headed, whimpish liberal who is content with a mere rap on the wrist. I hope he sends her away for about two years so I can have some rest and let the good times roll!"
The former chief continued to do interviews with the media on law enforcement controversies for decades after leaving that post.
In August of 2022 KARE reporter Jennifer Hoff asked Bouza if he was good chief.
"Oh, God! I would never say that!" Bouza replied.