The list of police chiefs who have resigned or been fired continues to grow as law enforcement officials face pressure from both city administrators and their communities.
In the past two years, departments have lost their top cops in cities across the country including Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City, according to USA Today.
San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr was the latest to get the ax last week following the fatal police-involved shooting of an African-American woman.
"Never has the job been more difficult than now,'' Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, told the newspaper.
Stephens and others attribute the turnover of police officials to the scrutiny law enforcement initially prompted by incidents such as the officer-involved death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, which resulted in riots and violent protests.
Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson stepped down several months following the aftermath of the shooting.
"Patience is in short supply these days,'' University of Pittsburgh law professor David Harris told USA Today. "What once may be have been seen as a purely local matter involving a police department, a chief or an officer, is now seen as part of national pattern or problem. What came out of Ferguson painted for people a set of issues that is now seen as recurring and national in scope.''
As cities grapple with ways to regain the public's trust, federal officials are also looking to bolster the nation's police departments.
At a White House event held Monday to mark last year's release of President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing report, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the current environment holds challenges for police and citizen alike.
"Our work to help law enforcement adjust to the specific challenges of the 21st century has arisen from an intensely difficult set of circumstances,'' she said. "In cities across the United States ... we've seen long-simmering and deeply rooted tensions boil over into protest, discord and even -- tragically -- into violence.''
Ronal Serpas, who was has hired in 2010 to lead the New Orleans Police Department following a series of scandals exposed in after Hurricane Katrina, told the newspaper that the job has an unforgiving quality attached to it.
"As a chief, you are always on the tip of the spear,'' Serpas, who is now a criminal justice professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, said. "The difference now is that everybody is watching and the political process is playing out for all to see.''
