Chief Michael Pickett, who leads the Birmingham, Ala. police force, is a new face of law enforcement in America.
Chief Michael Pickett is Birmingham, Alabama's youngest police chief in history.
Chief Michael Pickett during a physical agility screening with other members of the Birmingham Police Department.
Under the leadership of Chief Michael Pickett, the city of Birmingham, Alabama, welcomed its largest class of recruits in city history.
Chief Pickett and the Birmingham Police Department welcomed its largest crop of cops in 2025.

Chief Michael Pickett's hair was lined up. Badge on, beard sculpted.

And in the Instagram video posted Oct. 31 by Essence magazine, the leader of Birmingham, Alabama's police force attracted nearly 5,000 comments from online admirers fawning over his appearance.

"Since it's Halloween, we feel we deserve a little treat," the Essence caption said. "Birmingham Police Chief Michael Pickett is arresting hearts all over the internet, and he's got us wanting to protect and serve. Wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee. Like a cop car!"

But Pickett didn't set out to become a famous face on Instagram or the latest TikTok heartthrob. Instead, he wants to be a new model for community policing in America. The strategic method, used by departments across the country, encourages officers to prioritize authentic partnerships with the neighborhoods they serve.

Last year was Birmingham's deadliest year on record – 139 people were violently murdered. But the city has reduced homicides by 51% so far in 2025 under Pickett's first year of leadership and recruited its largest-ever crop of cops.

Days after Pickett sat down for an interview with USA TODAY, Birmingham suffered three homicides on Saturday, Nov. 8. "Let me be clear: BPD is still locked in," he wrote in a statement Nov 10. "If you take a life in this city, we will work relentlessly to find you."

Arrests were made in all three cases in 48 hours.

Still, Pickett says there's more work to be done in Birmingham. The chief is flattered by the attention he's received online, he says, but remains goal focused.

"I'm truly honored by the recognition of Essence, I know that is a huge, huge, huge" outlet, Pickett told USA TODAY, calling the coverage "humbling." But he insisted that his attention "consistently remains on serving the citizens of Birmingham, fighting crime and holding those folks accountable, that I said, choose to break the law in our city."

Pickett's rise comes a half-decade after George Floyd was murdered in May 2020 by a police officer in Minneapolis, sparking a national debate about law enforcement tactics. It also comes as President Donald Trump deploys National Guard troops to metropolitan areas across the country after he campaigned on cracking down on crime during the 2024 election.

Magic City residents share their own fraught relationship with police dating back before the 1963 Birmingham riot. It's where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote the famous Letter from Birmingham Jail as he worked to desegregate the South.

It's where nonviolent protesters were hosed with water, harassed with tear gas and attacked by police dogs. And it's the site of the Ku Klux Klan's downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in September 1963 that killed four Black girls.

A son of West Birmingham meets a mentor that changed his life

Pickett grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Birmingham, a time where distrust for the police lingered two decades after the Civil Rights Movement's peak.

That "unfortunate" past is how he was introduced to the city police department.

"I grew up as a child, you know, hearing the stories from my parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents, and of course the Birmingham Police Department was a part of those stories," Pickett said.

But the chief didn't interact much with police as he grew up in the city. He credits his "amazing" family for keeping him out of trouble.

He stayed out of harm's way into young adulthood – but that didn't mean he wanted to be in law enforcement. The Ramsay High School graduate later met Birmingham Officer Victor "Vic" Langford while attending Miles College, a historically Black institution just outside of the city.

"He said, 'You know, I see something in you, and I think you should go take the test to see how you do to become a police officer," Pickett said of Coach Vic, as he's nicknamed. Pickett performed well and landed in the next police academy class, joining the department in 2004.

Vic didn't just set an set an example for Pickett as a law enforcement officer – he also built real connections into the Alabama community. He helped lead one of the police athletic teams that linked the department to Birminghamians, and he had a strong presence, Pickett said.

In 2021, Coach Vic would garner statewide attention when he helped capture a murder suspect after he caught him in an alleyway during off-duty hours. "We’re always hearing bad stuff about police officers. Officer Vic didn't have to do what he did,'" local resident Marcella Stevenson told AL.com at the time. "He went above and beyond. He showed that he cared."

'They understand the people'

Pickett rose through the ranks in the city's West Precinct – just like Vic. By Spring 2024, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin appointed Pickett to be interim police chief. "Birmingham deserves a police department that is proactive, professional and people-focused," Pickett said at an introductory press conference April 1.

He became the youngest chief in Birmingham history at 40. His following grew, too. On Instagram, Pickett has amassed 13,000 followers. His posts typically surpass 1,000 likes.

University of Alabama at Birmingham criminal justice professor Jeffery Walker says Pickett's popularity is due, in part, to growing up there. "He knows a lot of people here, so it's really easy to build a following, and that's just kind of grown," Walker said.

The professor added that Pickett's connection is important because "there's not a lot of trust in the city itself," citing longtime local complaints about trash pickup, rundown buildings and overgrown lots.

Police departments like Birmingham's are also dealing with nationwide opinions. Americans across the country have a complicated connection to police and their work. A Gallup poll conducted last year found that 51% of Americans say they have a "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the police, compared to 32% who say they have "some" confidence and 16% who have none.

And despite FBI data that shows the nation's crime rates have dwindled over the past three decades, over half of Americans believe there is more crime than the prior year in nearly every Gallup survey conducted since 1993.

To improve the department's ties to Birmingham, Pickett said a few things had to happen. First, he wanted the bulk of Birmingham's officers to be from the community, like he is.

"Ideally, most of your police officers could come from the community that they serve, because they know the people, because they understand the people," Pickett said. "They understand the good and the bad, you know, and whenever you're familiar with the community – you're from a community – I feel that you can better serve a community."

How Chief Michael Pickett and Birmingham officers 'locked in'

Next, he told officers to get "locked in" – to focus and prepare, so they can protect.

Pickett was "downright pissed off" over Birmingham's deadliest year ever in 2024, he said over the summer to The Birmingham Times. If the department wanted to combat violent crime, Pickett said BPD officers needed to combat misconceptions about cops. He penned a letter to his peers, challenging them to get locked in.

"That was my message to the department – I let them know that we had the deadliest year ever last year, and our community is depending on each and every one of us," Pickett said. "We signed up for this job, we swore."

"It's a global world now, so even though something doesn't happen in our community, people can see it because everything's on the internet now," Pickett added. Officers "have to understand the atmosphere, understand the current events of what's going on, and we have to combat that," he told USA TODAY.

That work goes beyond the moments where police are making arrests or investigating possible criminal activity, according to Pickett. After shootings, he shows up on front doors. Gets to know his neighbors. He talks to folks in streets. BPD officers livestream from events on Facebook.

"The way we combat that is the way we police, the way we make people feel – by feeling heard, by feeling valued, by feeling respected when we interact with them and we're present," Pickett said.

No direct link between crime reduction and community policing, experts say

University of Nebraska Omaha professor Justin Nix said there's no scientific evidence to suggest a direct correlation between crime reduction and community policing initiatives.

But strengthening community bonds can help build trust. "As human beings, we look for people that seem approachable, and it only helps the police when that's the way that they're perceived by the community," Nix told USA TODAY.

Ex-law enforcement officer and University of New Haven community policing expert Lorenzo Boyd agreed, telling USA TODAY that positive encounters help foster a sense of security and fellowship in Birmingham and beyond.

"If there's anything that's going to point a positive light at the police, that'll give somebody a pause just for a moment to say, 'You know what, maybe I will give them the benefit of the doubt or maybe I will talk to the police a little bit more, then that's a good thing," Boyd said.

After an eight-year hiatus, Pickett restarted the police athletic teams – that Coach Vic helped lead – in March to mentor kids through sports.

"The goal of our PAT program is going to be to foster mutual respect between law enforcement and our youth," he told local news station WBRC.

His approach has also drawn more recruits to the Birmingham Police Department, which welcomed its largest-ever police academy class in August. Ninety-three recruits were ready to get locked in.

The department cleared a local bar too: When the 1996 Olympic Games where held in Atlanta, BPD beefed up its staffing for soccer tournaments held at Birmingham's Legion Field. They were nicknamed "the Olympic class" in honor of the '96 Games.

"We actually beat that class," Pickett told USA TODAY, calling it "a testament to our hiring team, and I think it's a testament to putting the right people in place in the right places." BPD has hired over 200 officers this year.

'I'm just trying to see the chief'

Pickett still isn't playing about crime in the area. He released a statement Aug. 28 that detailed why his department arrested parents after a fight took place in a public housing development. "I have two words," the chief wrote. "Parental accountability."

But his local work as police chief hasn't stopped him from skyrocketing to national prominence. A week before Essence posted about Pickett, the Magic City Classic football game was held in the area. Alabama State destroyed the Alabama A&M Bulldogs during the nation's largest HBCU football match-up, 56 to 13.

Pickett walked in the parade and was hyped on TikTok while chopping it up with fans.

One woman, internet creator Zakiya Milhouse, even went to the Birmingham police headquarters, lawn chair in hand, for a chance to meet him. "I ain't gone bother nobody, I'm just trying to see the chief, baby he been the topic of social media," she said in the Nov. 2 video. "I'm just trying to see if he really fine."

"He is the topic of the internet, like the girls are loving him," Milhouse told USA TODAY. "I actually just feel like I did what the girls wish they had the balls to do honestly."

Pickett celebrates one year since Mayor Woodfin named him interim chief on Nov. 20.

It seems like just a few years ago, he was a kid on the west side of Birmingham. He wasn't looking to become a cop – at least not until he met Coach Vic. He never thought he would become chief either.

Now what Pickett wants is for kids on the west side of Birmingham to be one thing: Safe.

Contributing: N'dea Yancey-Bragg

This story has been updated to correct a typo.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A 'heartthrob' cop is winning over the internet. He's got a message.

Reporting by Jay Stahl, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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