PHA's top cop in line to be police chief in Cambridge, Mass.

Branville Bard Jr., chief of the Philadelphia Housing Authority Police Department, is expected to be named police commissioner in Cambridge, Mass., according to a news release from that city.

Cambridge officials used the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit law enforcement support agency, to recruit and screen applicants for the position. Five candidates were interviewed last month. On Friday, Cambridge officials announced that Bard was the only remaining finalist.

Kelvin Jeremiah, PHA president and CEO, praised Bard in a statement Wednesday.

"Chief Bard has kept me aware of the potential opportunity in Cambridge throughout the process," Jeremiah wrote. "He has done a phenomenal job of building and reforming our police department and working with residents to drive down crime at PHA developments. Our preference would certainly be to keep him with us, but if he is offered and accepts the job in Cambridge, we will wish him the very best. He would leave the department in significantly better condition than he found it."

Bard did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Calls to Cambridge City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, who was quoted in the news release, were referred to the city's communication director, who did not return a request for a comment.

Cambridge officials liked Bard's cultural awareness, strong leadership, data-driven approach, and "appreciation for the unique challenges faced by sanctuary cities," the news release said. Cambridge and Philadelphia are "sanctuary cities."

Bard would go from heading a department of 70 officers who serve about 82,000 PHA residents to a department of 272 officers who serve a city of about 110,000.

According to the release, crime in Cambridge has dropped for six consecutive years and is at "record low levels" not seen since 1961. FBI data from 2015, the most recent year available, show that Cambridge had three murders, 24 rapes, and 82 robberies that year. During the same time, PHA properties had six murders, 18 rapes, and 90 robberies, according to data previously provided by the authority.

Bard, a retired Philadelphia police inspector, has led the PHA Police Department since February 2015. He outfitted all Housing Authority police officers with body cameras, tightened officer patrols, and instituted a program in which PHA residents were recruited to become PHA police officers.

Crime dropped 41 percent across PHA properties in 2016, a decline that Bard credits to enhanced community engagement.

This is not the first time in his brief tenure as PHA police chief that Bard has been considered for another post. In 2016, he was on a short list of candidates to become director of the Memphis Police Department.