John Nichols (law enforcement officer)

Nichols was born in 1918 in Detroit's southwest side's Hungarian community.[6] In 1935, he graduated from the city's Southwestern High School at the age of sixteen.[6]

Nichols would, in 1968, graduate with a degree in police administration from Wayne State University.[6]

Nichols joined the Detroit Police Department in 1942.[6]

Nichols was in uniform during the 1943 Detroit race riot.[6] Several days later he was drafted into the United States Army.[6] He served 3.5 years in the United States Army, rising to the rank of captain and becoming a company commander in the European Theater of World War II.[6] After his military service, in 1946, he rejoined the Detroit Police Department force.[6]

In 1948, he became a police detective, and was assigned to the department's juvenile bureau.[6] In 1965, he was promoted to district inspector.[6]

In 1966, he was promoted to deputy superintendent.[6] In 1967, he was promoted to superintendent,[6] making him second-in-command of the department.[7] Later in 1967, the 1967 Detroit riot took place.[6]

In 1968, he received a degree in police administration from Wayne State University.[6] He would go on to teach a course there himself on police work.[8]

In 1973, Nichols ran a "law-and-order" centered campaign for mayor of Detroit. He narrowly lost to Coleman Young.[16]

While the election was nonpartisan, both Nichols and Young were Democrats.[17]

Young ran, in part, on a platform to abolish the police department's STRESS unit.[10]

In 1974, he retired from the Detroit Police Department, and moved to Farmington Hills, Michigan.[6] He briefly served as Oakland County, Michigan undersheriff under Sheriff Johannes Spreen, before then being appointed Farmington Hills' police chief in 1977.[3][6]

In 1984, Nichols defeated the incumbent Johannes Spreen to become Oakland County sheriff.[6] Nichols was reelected three times. In each of his elections, with the exception of his 1996 reelection to a fourth term, he was the county's highest vote-getter.[6] Nichols was elected as a Republican.[6]

As sheriff, Nichols undertook what James A. McClear of the Detroit Free Press would later call, "a tough, no-frills revamping of the department".[6] He instituted strict policies for the department's officers, doubled the capacity of its jail, and tripled the size of its road patrol.[6] The jail had been regularly at or near capacity.[16] The department's annual budget increased during his tenure, being at $73 million by the end of his tenure.[6]

Among what James A. McClear of the Detroit Free Press wrote, at the time of his death, had been the successes of Nichols' tenure was a boot camp for young offenders that garnered national acclaim, a marine division patrolling Oakland County's lakes, and an investigative bureau that was regularly asked to help other departments.[6]

During his tenure, the department faced a corruption probe. While the probe harmed the reputation of the department, it was not regarded to have personally harmed his own reputation.[16]

Nichols died in office in 1998.[6]

In 1954, his first wife, Mildred, committed suicide using his service revolver.[6] Nichols remarried to a former policewoman.[8] Nichols was the father to several children.[8]

At the time of his 1996 reelection to a fourth term as Oakland County sheriff, there were reports that Nichols was in poor health.[6]

Nichols died on December 18, 1998, at the age of 80 after a debilitating fight with emphysema and heart failure.[16][18] Following his death, James A. McClear of the Detroit Free Press wrote, "described as a crusty warrior who gave as much loyalty as he demanded, Nichols earned a reputation for honesty during his more than 55 years as a police officer."[6] Obituaries described him as being bluntly spoken.[16] More than 1,000 attended his funeral.[18]