Two major U.S. cities announced this week the full-time appointments of Black women to lead their police forces.
In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that Pamela A. Smith will serve as the next chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. And in Louisville, Kentucky, interim police chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel is formally taking the job of new chief. Both will be the first Black women to hold their respective positions.
“Joining the MPD as your chief of police is a historic occasion,” Smith said at a press conference Monday held at the MLK Memorial Library in Washington. “And this historic moment is not lost on me. I join a legacy of strong African American women who lead public safety in the District of Columbia.”
Louisville’s Gwinn-Villaroel is tasked with guiding a force that has faced years of scrutiny since the police shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. The city has gone through several chiefs and interim leaders since the death of Taylor, a Black woman shot dead in a police raid gone awry.
Gwinn-Villaroel had served as the the third interim chief since Taylor’s death. Former interim chief Yvette Gentry became the first Black woman to serve in that role when she was hired in 2020.
“This is a challenging job,” Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a news conference Thursday announcing the appointment. “And over the last few months, it’s become very clear that the best person to do this work is already on the job.”
Gwinn-Villaroel faces challenges in recruiting new officers and restore community trust after the U.S. Justice Department announced in March that it had found Louisville police engaged in a pattern of violating constitutional rights and discrimination.
DOJ data shows that, as of 2020, about 10% of all federal law enforcement officers were Black and about 15% were women.
Smith and Gwinn-Villaroel’s appointments come over a month after after Keechant Sewell, the first Black woman to lead the New York Police Department, resigned after just 18 months in the post.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
