Law / Politics
John Nichols
1918–1998 · police commissioner, sheriff
Son of Detroit's southwest-side Hungarian community who rose to Detroit police commissioner and narrowly lost the 1973 mayoral race to Coleman Young.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Nichols was born in 1918 in the Hungarian neighborhood of southwest Detroit and graduated from Southwestern High School at 16. He joined the Detroit Police Department in 1942 and was on duty during the 1943 race riot, then served in the Army during World War II. Back on the force, he climbed from detective to superintendent, and in 1970 Mayor Roman Gribbs named him police commissioner. His term was marked by the STRESS decoy unit, whose many fatal shootings made policing the central issue of the 1973 election. Fired by Gribbs that year, Nichols ran for mayor on a law-and-order platform and narrowly lost to Coleman Young, who became Detroit's first Black mayor. He later led the Farmington Hills police and served as Oakland County sheriff from 1985 until his death in 1998.
Highlights
- Joined the Detroit Police Department in 1942
- Detroit police commissioner, 1970–1973
- Narrowly lost the 1973 mayoral election to Coleman Young
- Oakland County sheriff, 1985–1998
- Played himself in the 1973 film Detroit 9000
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1930s
Southwestern High School
Closed · 1916–2012
Southwest Detroit high school whose early student body was heavily Hungarian-American; Nichols graduated in 1935.
Worked here · 1942–1974
Detroit Police Headquarters (1300 Beaubien)
Closed · 1923–2013
The department's longtime headquarters, from which Nichols ran the force as commissioner; the police moved out in 2013.