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Ervin Burrell is a fictional officer in the Baltimore Police Department played by Frankie Faison on the HBO drama The Wire . Burrell is a careerist and has ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show. BIOGRAPHY Burrell is a careerist who believes in the Chain Of Command in the department and has knowledge of corrupt activities of its officers and commanders. By his age and rank, it can be assumed he joined the BPD in the 1960s or 1970s. As commissioner of a struggling department in a violent city, Burrell is a statistical bureaucrat who cares more about reducing crime on paper in a statistical manner than through a strategical investigative manner. Additionally, Burrell is conscientious of the media coverage of his department and is very sensitive to the newspaper headlines concerning its progress. This is exemplified most by his relationship with fellow officer Cedric Daniels and the City's mayoral administration. Throughout the series, he struggles to direct the department to make an adequate impact on crime reduction and is constantly engaged in conflict with the city's politicians, most of whom blame him directly for the department's problems. Because of his knowledge of corruption, Burrell has often used blackmail as a means of maintaining a powerful position in the department. He blackmailed Daniels earlier in the series and with the help of Clay Davis intends to blackmail him again. Amongst other commanders, he blackmailed Bunny Colvin into retiring at a lower rank from the department. He also blackmailed Mayor Royce during the "Hamsterdam" fallout and Mayor Carcetti whom he stated could only force him to leave the department by firing him in effect creating a headline that would make Carcetti look bad. Policing Method Burrell believes in making buy-busts of drug dealers that result in good headlines and media coverage of the department. Burrell is shown as a weak strategist throughout the series but this does not stop Burrell from being elevated to the position of commissioner. Burrell cares more about the political aspects of being a ranking officer than the investigative aspects of being a commanding officer and is seen showing little interest in quality felony arrests throughout the series. When he is under criticism of both his statistical based approach to policing and the department's lack of quality felony investigations, he is considered for termination as commissioner but his political survival techniques keep him at his rank and file within the department. Season 1 Burrell was Deputy Commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department in season one. His main aim as Deputy Commissioner was to ascend to Police Commissioner. He consistently showed more interest in making good headlines rather than good cases. Burrell hastily assembled a task force under Lieutenant Cedric Daniels ' command in order to placate Judge Phelan , who was furious that Avon Barksdale 's men had been able to beat a murder charge in his courtroom by buying off a witness. From the beginning, Burrell was unsupportive of the unit, hoping to make a few quick arrests to satisfy the judge and then bury the case. He ordered premature seizure raids that tipped the Barksdale organization to the detail's efforts and prompted them to change their operating structure to hinder further investigation. To ensure nothing more than quick arrests, Burrell also gave the detail lieutenant Cedric Daniels "humps", the worst officers in the Baltimore Police Department who were nothing more than dead weight in their respective units. When Daniels' team began investigating donations from Barksdale's organization to local politicians, Burrell realised the political implications. He grew increasingly hostile towards them, threatening to expose Daniels' shady past if he did not close down the investigation. When the task force seized Barksdale money being carried by a state senator's driver, Burrell ordered Daniels to return it in order to avoid embarrassing the senator. Burrell was responsible for ordering a failed sting operation which resulted in the shooting of Detective Kima Greggs . Burrell was deputy to commissioner Warren Frazier throughout the first season. Burrell usually acted independently maintaining Frazier's orders throughout the department. When Detective Kima Greggs was shot, Frazier became more involved. Frazier and Burrell's main concern was sending a message to the community that the police department remained strong by seizing a large amount of narcotics. In retaliation for the shooting, Burrell insisted that Daniels' detail raid the Barksdales' main stash house, an act which caused Avon's people to stop using pay phones altogether - effectively nullifying the detail's wiretaps. Burrell also bribed Detective Ellis Carver with a sergeant promotion to feed him information from inside the detail. To force Daniels to meet his demands, Burrell threatened to revisit previous allegations towards Daniels which showed him in possession of an excessive income from his days in the Eastern District's D.E.U.. Daniels then stated that he would continue the case until the court ordered wire taps were down and was ready to take charges from previous investigations to make a bad headline as a threat to Burrell. When the Barksdale case ended, Burrell reassigned Daniels to evidence control as punishment for defying and threatening him. Season 2
Burrell gave Valchek a squad of detectives via C.I.D. Colonel Bill Rawls would pick a squad of six for six weeks to conduct a case against Sobotka and his union. Burrell however pulled the same stunt that he had with Cedric Daniels on the Barksdale investigation though influencing the shift commanders to give Valchek "Humps" or dead-weight detectives to conduct an investigation as the case was unwanted by the department. When Valchek saw the in-effective detectives at work and heard through his son-in-law Detective Pryzbylewski that Burrell had interfered with the Barksdale investigation, Valchek angrily demanded better officers to lead the investigation threatening to derail Burrell's quest for commissioner for noncompliance. Valchek specifically ordered Cedric Daniels to lead the investigation who was considering retirement from the department due to his duties in evidence control, the unit Burrell had sent him to due to his defiance in the Barksdale investigation. To save his appointment, Burrell then convinced Daniels to stay in the department even though Daniels realized he was doing so at Valchek's request. Daniels demanded a promotion, a specialized unit, and a selection of his own detectives to conduct the case and Burrell agreed in order to appease Valchek. Season 3 In season three Burrell promoted William Rawls to his old position of Deputy Commissioner of Operations. Burrell is called by Mayor Clarence Royce and his Chief of Staff Coleman Parker to discuss problems relating to councilman Tommy Carcetti whom Royce suspects will make a run for mayor in the following election. Parker points out that crime is Royce's worst attribute and Burrell is then told to keep murders below 275 and cause a drop of 5% citywide to counter any political opponents' exploitation of Royce's crime figures. Burrell and Rawls presided over harrowing weekly comstat meetings where they pressured their district commanders to return the favorable crime rate figures the mayor was hoping for. As deputy, Rawls is the more verbose commander in criticizing the district and operational commanders while Burrell gave them their final warning or relief from their command post. Burrell first relieved Major Marvin Taylor as the Eastern District Commander and then threatened Western District Commander Major Howard Colvin when felonies rose 2% in his district. Burrell was also short to Lieutenant Daniels in his promotion to major due to city hall conflicts. Daniels' wife had conflict with the Mayor making a run for the 11th district council seat where one of Royce's loyalists Eunetta Perkins was serving. This supposedly prevented Burrell from enacting Daniels' promotion to major. During the season Burrell worked with councilman Tommy Carcetti in order to prevent the department from looking worse at the public safety subcommittee meetings. Carcetti offered as a favor more resources for the police department as Mayor Royce provided little support to Burrell expecting him to take all the blame for the department's problems. Burrell's requests were met courtesy of Carcetti who with city hall worked around Royce. Carcetti however continued to criticize the department which under Royce's administration did not effectively set up witness protection programs to effectively fight the war on crime. While Carcetti was critical of the department, Burrell began to see him as an effective and slick politician who could prove a useful ally in hard times for the department. When Major Colvin reduced the crime in his district by ignoring the drug traffic, the felony dropped much to the suspicion of Burrell, Rawls, and Major Reed . Upon learning the truth of his strategy, Burrell forced him to take his vacation time immediately. He then informed the Mayor of the drug sanctioned zones and the Mayor looked to blame Burrell directly. With the help of Carcetti, Burrell claimed he would go public stating the reduction was all due to pressure given to his force from the Mayor's office that encouraged the drug sanctioned areas. This put fear into Royce who was seeking re-election. Burrell then prevented negative publicity and secured his term as Commissioner by bargaining with Mayor Clarence Royce over the handling of Major Colvin 's Hamsterdam zone. He offered Colvin as a scapegoat and with Reed and Rawls was ruthless in forcing him out of the department. Colvin complied as refusal to "bend over backwards" for the department would result in unnecessary harshness towards the rest of his men in his district whom he fought hard on behalf of. Burrell then had Hamsterdam shut down and Colvin dismissed at the demotion to a Lieutenant where he received a lower pension grade. Burrell had humiliated Colvin further through personally informing Johns Hopkins University of Colvin's misdoings and thereby costing him his retirement job as Deputy Commander of Campus Security. Following the arrest of Avon Barksdale , Burrell informs Cedric Daniels that his promotion to major has been approved by city hall. Daniels is then given the immediate opening as Western District commander that Colvin left vacant. Season 4 Burrell continued as police Commissioner and remained a key member of Royce's inner circle. When the Major Crimes Unit served subpoenas against key political figures Mayor Royce became angered. After berating Burrell, Ervin promised to prevent any more surprises from his department. Burrell then asked Deputy Rawls if Jimmy McNulty was responsible for this given his previous acts of insubordination, but Rawls suggested Lester Freamon was behind the subpoenas. Rawls recommended controlling the subpoenas by "proper supervision" of the unit which involved removing the lenient Lieutenant Jimmy Asher and replacing him with a hostile and caustic commander named Lieutenant Charles Marimow . When Burrell failed to bring a murdered witness to the Mayor's attention before it became a campaign issue Royce ordered Burrell to downplay the story to the press and take the political fallout on himself. Royce also asked Burrell to slow the investigation down to suppress information about the motive for the murder until after the election to prevent it being proved that the killing was carried out because of the victim's witness status. Burrell ordered Colonel Raymond Foerster to reassign the veteran primary investigator, Ed Norris, and replace him with Greggs, now a rookie homicide detective. This proved to be a serious mistake as the change of investigators was leaked to the press. Mayor Royce then summoned Burrell and Deputy Commissioner Rawls criticizing Ervin for the department's problems that led up to the press leaking. Royce angrily dismissed Burrell only to keep Deputy Rawls after the discussion. Royce admired Rawls' loyal subordination to the chain of command and claimed that he would "not forget" Rawls clearing these incidents up. From this it was seen that Burrell would lose his commissioner's post following the election. Royce however lost to Carcetti in the primary election and Burrell managed to keep his commissioner's post.
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| Year | 2004 |
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| Title | Org Chart - The Law |
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| Publisher | HBO |
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| Accessdate | 2006-07-22 |
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| Url | http://wwwhbocom/thewire/orgchart/lawshtml |
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