Born on October 4, 1928,[2] in Ferrol, Galicia, Spain, Bouza came to the United States with his family at age nine.
[3] Donald Fraser, who was newly elected as mayor of Minneapolis in 1980, brought in Bouza to be his police chief.
Fraser wanted an outsider and a reformer to head the department following a series of scandals under his predecessor.
[8] After stepping down as chief, Bouza served as Minnesota gaming commissioner from 1989 to 1991 and then briefly as director of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence in Washington, D.C.[6] In 1994, Bouza unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Farmer Labor Party nomination for Governor of Minnesota.
[6] Bouza was author of nine books, including trade books: The Police Mystique: An Insider's Look at Cops, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System (1990),[11] A Carpet of Blue: An Ex-Cop Takes a Tough Look at America's Drug Problem (1991),[12] Police Unbound: Corruption, Abuse, and Heroism by the Boys in Blue (2001),[13] The Decline and Fall of the American Empire: Corruption, Decadence, and the American Dream (2003),[14] and Expert Witness: Breaking the Policemen's Blue Code of Silence (2013),[15] as well as two technical books: Police Intelligence: The Operations of an Investigative Unit (AMS Press, 1976)[16] and Police Administration (Elsevier, 1978).