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DAYTON, Ohio (WKEF) -- Dayton's newest police chief will be sworn-in on Monday morning. Kamran Afzal replaces former chief Richard Biehl, and has thirty years of law enforcement experience.
Chief Afzal will be sworn in at Dayton City Hall at 10:00 Monday morning, then he will officially be leading the department of more than 350 police officers and manage a budget of $57 million.
He was appointed after the city spent six months searching for Chief Biehl's replacement.
Chief Afzal most recently served as the police chief in Hopewell, Virginia. He says in this new role, first and foremost he plans to take the time to meet his staff.
"Understanding how things works on a day-to-day basis not from somebody else's perspective but from the perspective of the officers, and the command staff I think will be very very important, and obviously from the city's perspective," Chief Afzal said. "So it's probably going to take a little bit of time."
When asked why he wanted to move to Dayton, Chief Afzal says he always wanted to lead a department about the same size of Arlington, Virginia where he spent the majority of his career. He says he also likes what Dayton is doing to revitalize the downtown area.
His swearing in comes at a time of turmoil regarding police reform locally and nationally.
Most recently, the Dayton community expressed concern about the Clifford Owensby case.
Body camera video shows officers with the Dayton Police Department pulling a paraplegic man from his car by his hair. Police had told him several times that they would help him out of the car.
Chief Afzal says he was not ready to comment on a video he had only seen a minute of, but he says if it needs addressed, it will be.
"Reforms are occurring I think an encouraging thing for the community I think should be the fact that you guys are very, very proactive, Dayton is very proactive in addressing some of the concerns of the community moving forward," Chief Afzal said.
He says a lot of reform efforts are already taking place within the Dayton Police Department and he does believe policing is more transparent than it used to be.
We will live stream Chief Afzal's swearing in on the Dayton 24/7 Now Facebook page.