Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mike Davis has been appointed public safety director of North­eastern Uni­ver­sity in Boston.

Davis, police chief for five years in the state's sixth-largest city, also was a leader in the Minneapolis police force earlier in his 20 years of police work. He and his wife will move to Boston in October, and he'll start work there Nov. 1.

Davis, who has a master's degree in orga­ni­za­tional man­age­ment from Con­cordia Uni­ver­sity St. Paul, called the move an "evolutionary opportunity … to dive into a different aspect of public safety" at a growing university that has several campuses around the nation. He already has taught for about five years at Har­vard University's Executive Ses­sion on Policing and Public Safety.

"The addi­tion of Mike Davis' expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge of policing — combined with his pas­sion for the future of the profession — will undoubt­edly strengthen the uni­ver­sity on sev­eral fronts," Northeastern Senior Vice President Steven Kadish said in a statement Wednesday.

Last year, Davis received the Gary P. Hayes Award, conferred annually by the Police Exec­u­tive Research Forum on a police leader who has shown out­standing ini­tia­tive in improving the quality of police service. The forum is a national police leadership and research orga­ni­za­tion.

Asked what he would tell his successor in Brooklyn Park, Davis replied: "I would tell the new chief to keep us on this path."

He noted that the number of violent crimes in Brooklyn Park is at an eight-year low and that all reported crime is the lowest in 21 years.

Davis restructured the department in 2010 to move officers to different parts of the city to deal with conditions that lead to criminal activity. He noted that 2013 city surveys found 96 percent of residents think police service is good or excellent, up from 91 percent in 2011.

Meanwhile, another Brooklyn Park city department head also is leaving. Community Development Director Jason Aarsvold will resign Sept. 3 to become a financial adviser for the financial consulting firm Ehlers & Associates, Assistant City Manager Mike Sable said. Sable will handle Aarsvold's job while the city seeks a new development director.

Jim Adams • 612-673-7658