1 of the 3 finalists for Raleigh police chief filed for bankruptcy
Two external candidates and one internal candidate are in the running to become Raleigh’s next police chief, City Manager Marchell Adams-David said Monday.
Current Chief Estella Patterson announced her retirement in December, marking the end of an almost four-year tenure, The News & Observer previously reported. Her successor will take over when Patterson steps down March 1, city officials said.
The police chief oversees a department with a nearly $139 million budget, including $4.7 million for the chief’s office alone, according to the city’s budget documents for the current fiscal year.
The finalists for the position are:
- Joshua Wallace, commander of the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism’s Criminal Network Group.
- Sonia J. Russell, commander of crime control strategies for the Detroit Police Department.
- Rico Boyce, deputy chief of administration for the Raleigh Police Department.
Here’s what we know about each candidate.
Joshua Wallace
His Raleigh candidacy marks the fifth known job search for Wallace in the past year, who also applied for police chief roles in Detroit, Michigan; Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; and Des Moines, Iowa, in 2024 and 2025, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Wallace was most recently a finalist in Detroit, which opted not to select him earlier this month, according to local outlets.
The Des Moines Register broke the news in October that Wallace had filed for bankruptcy last February. Court filings show he filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy Feb. 29, 2024, after accumulating $840,000 in debt, including $445,000 on his mortgage; $236,000 in student loans; $95,000 in money owed to banks and credit card companies; and $52,000 in backdated federal income taxes.
Wallace told Detroit outlet BridgeDetroit last month that he filed for bankruptcy after divorcing his wife of 26 years.
“I took on the debt, it was restructured, and it’s being paid back as required,” Wallace said.
Wallace has also faced questions about dozens of complaints filed against him in over two decades with the Chicago Police Department, including six lawsuits, one of which led to a $285,000 settlement, according to nonprofit news outlet Invisible Institute.
Data gathered by the outlet shows Wallace, who joined the department in October 1999, has been the subject of 47 allegations — more than 97% of other Chicago Police Department officers. Only one of those allegations, a use of force complaint, was sustained, according to that data.
The lawsuit settlement was tied to allegations by three Chicago residents that in 2013 multiple officers arrested and beat them after being called to an apartment to handle unwanted visitors at a party, The Des Moines Register reported.
Court documents show the lawsuit was filed against seven officers, including Wallace, but that he was not directly named as one of the officers accused of the beatings.
Wallace also has 28 “honorable mentions,” more than 75% of other officers, Invisible Institute reported.
In an interview with Chicago outlet The Hyde Park Herald in November 2020, Wallace said he wanted to become a police officer after assisting in an arrest at 19 years old.
“I just happened to overhear a radio call about a burglary in progress,” Wallace recounted. “I happened to be turning a corner, and I see the officer jump out of the car, and he’s wrestling with the offender to the ground. So I went over there and started wrestling with the officer and we got the offender in custody.”
Before joining the police department at age 25, Wallace, who grew up in Chicago’s South Side area, worked as a police officer for the Chicago Housing Authority for four years, The Hyde Park Herald reported.
Wallace has a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement management and a master’s degree in administration of justice and security, according to the city of Raleigh. He described himself as “a committed advocate for officer mental health and wellness” who is focused on “transparency, accountability, and strengthening community trust,” his online biography states.
Sonia J. Russell
Detroit native Sonia J. Russell has served with the Detroit Police Department for almost 24 years, according to her city biography.
The youngest of four siblings, Russell grew up in foster care and was ultimately raised by her aunt, her city webpage states. She has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in administration from Central Michigan University.
Russell has been a “change agent” for her department, “always building processes and making recommendations for the efficient flow of the department’s operations,” her biography states. Her accomplishments at the Detroit Police Department include establishing an annual luncheon for the families of homicide victims and coordinating departmental activities for Women’s History Month each March.
Former Detroit Police Chief James White, who supervised Russell when he served as assistant chief, described her as “one of the smartest people in our department” in a Sept. 22, 2022, meeting of the City of Detroit Board of Police Commissioners.
“As the assistant chief, I had a lot of broken problems throughout the department that I was responsible for,” White said. “When I needed something fixed, it was Sonia Russell that I called on, who drove me nuts, but I got every single thing that I’ve asked her to fix fixed.”
Russell previously applied to serve as police chief in Topeka, Kansas, in the fall of 2021. In an interview with The Topeka Capital-Journal, she said community engagement was especially important to her.
“It’s a link to crime. It’s a link to the socioeconomic factors that’s going on in the community,” Russell said. “And we need to be able to engage our community in order to deal with those issues that arise.”
Rico Boyce
Boyce will be a familiar face for many Raleigh residents, having served with the department since 2000, according to his city biography.
As a deputy chief, Boyce has represented the department at many news conferences, most recently after a deadly shooting that injured a Raleigh police officer last month.
The N.C. Central University alumnus has worked in a number of positions with the department, including three years as a school resource officer, three years as a gang suppression officer and three years as a gang suppression sergeant, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Boyce has been deputy chief of administration, overseeing the department’s administrative services and internal affairs divisions, since January 2024, his profile shows.
“His leadership, community engagement and work ethic has accelerated him through the ranks within RPD,” Boyce’s city biography states.
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 12:48 PM.
