DETROIT — Incoming Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel announced James Barren, a psychologist and counter-terrorism expert who has spent time training Iraqi police, as the city’s new chief of police.

Barren, who spent 31 years on the force before his retirement four years ago, replaces former Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, who retired after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felonies and agreed to resign on Sept. 4.

Cockrel was to officially replace Kilpatrick on Friday.

Barren, 57, runs a Harper Woods counseling center called Europa Services and teaches hostage negotiation tactics to law enforcement organizations. He is a former head of the department’s Executive Protection Unit and is known to be popular among current and former Detroit officers.

“I’m ready to get to work to restore public faith,” Barren said after being introduced at a press conference Thursday. “I believe in leading from the front. We’re one team and I’ll be out there with them. And I look forward to maybe, hopefully getting out there tonight.”

His appointment comes three weeks after a group of Arab American community leaders met with Detroit police officials to discuss what they believed to be a possible hate crime, in the fatal beating of a 21-year old Yemeni man at a southwest Detroit gas station on Aug. 21.

Police are investigating the incident and have determined that Maher Almawri was beaten to death by a group of African Americans, but officials doubt the crime was racially motivated.

After the August meeting between family members of Almawri, Arab American leaders and police officials, ADC Michigan Regional Director Imad Hamad said the  community was shaken by the incident and its implications that tensions between Arabs and blacks in the city run deep, but commended the department for “their aggressive and swift investigation of this murder.”

“This is another sad tragedy that our community must endure. We as a community are determined to see that this crime does not go unsolved,” Hamad said.

“It’s no secret that public safety and the safety of our city are among my top priorities,” said Cockrel on Thursday. “Our challenge is to also run a leaner and more efficient police department. We need to work hard to restore faith and trust and integrity back to the police department and to the great people of this city.”