As Chief, Richards brought his community policing vision and philosophy to Martinsburg, dramatically increasing police-community partnerships. Under his leadership, MPD achieved historic levels of crime reduction. Richards designed Martinsburg’s innovative “Drug House Ordinance” which shut down 63 drug houses in the city and adopted by eight other West Virginia municipalities. Maury originated The Martinsburg Initiative (TMI), the revolutionary police-school-community partnership grounded in the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and national model for preventing substance use disorder, building strong families, and empowering communities. A central TMI component, the “Adopt a Classroom” program, has made thousands of positive police-student contacts in Martinsburg schools.

Prior to his career in policing, Maury was a steelworker for 18 years, completing apprenticeships for Boilermaker and General Mechanic at Republic Steel Corporation’s Chicago mill. As the twice elected President of the 3,000-member bargaining unit of Local 1033 USWA, he served on the negotiating committee that created the employee-owned company Republic Engineered Steels. Richards secured $1 M in Trade Readjustment Act retraining funding for steelworkers displaced by unfair foreign competition—a first in the American steel industry.

Maury achieved his Doctorate in Education from Northern Illinois University, has Master’s Degrees in Criminal Justice and Public Administration, and is a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police. He has contributed police and community-related features to both The Hill and The Daily Caller.