Amazon exec takes job at police department because it's better than 'helping ship brown boxes'

Greg Russell has the kind of resumé that would make many in the tech industry jealous, with executive roles at Cisco, Flextronics and most recently Amazon. Now, in an unusual move, he's leaving the private sector behind to work at his city's police department.

The Seattle Police Department announced this week that it has hired Russell, Amazon's VP in charge of corporate applications and information technology, to take over as its chief information officer, a newly created role at the department.

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"He has the knowledge of the technology end that we really need," Detective Patrick Michaud, the public information officer for the Seattle Police Department, told Mashable on Thursday. Read more...

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