Ervin Burrell

Ervin H. Burrell is a fictional character on the HBO drama The Wire, played by Frankie Faison. Burrell was an officer in the Baltimore Police Department who ascended from Deputy Commissioner of Operations to Commissioner over the course of the show. He was fired by Mayor Tommy Carcetti for falsifying crime statistics. 2Biography Burrell is a careerist who believes in the Baltimore Police Department's chain of command and stores knowledge of corrupt activities by his subordinates to maintain his authority. He is a statistical bureaucrat who cares more about reducing crime on paper than building strong cases. Burrell is conscious of the media coverage of the BPD and is very sensitive to the newspaper headlines concerning its progress. Throughout the series, he struggles to direct the BPD to make an adequate impact on crime reduction and constantly engages in conflict with the city's politicians, some of whom blame him for the department's problems. Burrell attended Dunbar High School and was a member of the school's glee club. He was a year ahead of "Proposition Joe" Stewart, who described Burrell in high school as "stone stupid." 3Season 1 A Deputy Commissioner at the start of season 1, Burrell has ambitions to be promoted to Commissioner, a post held by Warren Frazier. Burrell's primary responsibility is to ensure that Frazier's directives are obeyed throughout the BPD. He consistently shows more interest in making good headlines rather than good case