After more than eight years leading the District’s police force, Chief Charles Ramsey’s “good ride,” he said Monday, has come to an end.
“I’ve enjoyed this,” Ramsey said as Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty named his replacement, Metropolitan Police Department Cmdr. Cathy Lanier. “I’ve enjoyed every single day and every single moment, the good and the bad.”
Ramsey, who will step down Jan. 2, was lured to the District in 1998 after serving three decades in the Chicago Police Department. Under his tenure, serious crime in the District has dropped virtually across the board — homicides last topped the 300 mark in 1997. He launched the city’s first community policing effort, expanded diversity training and established special units for multiple minority communities.
“I’m not a miracle worker but we did make things better,” Ramsey said.
But the chief’s critics included Fenty, who has long demanded more officers for neighborhood patrols. Civil rights groups clamored over the department’s handling of protesters, and the police union faulted Ramsey for taking what it considered to be a reactive, rather than proactive, approach to public safety.
Ramsey said he is most proud of “restoring the respect and credibility” to the MPD, and most “haunted” by the unsolved murder of 9-year-old Donte Manning, the Columbia Heights boy who was shot in the head by a stray bullet in March 2005.
“That case is just one that just bothers me, that a child could be just gunned down on the street like that and you don’t get that outpouring of information and support of who’s responsible,” Ramsey said.
Ramsey said he’s not looking to lead another department, though he does hope to remain in law enforcement.
“I’m still a District of Columbia resident, still a stakeholder,” he said. “Unless obviously you’ve got any job opportunities that you know about, don’t be afraid to let me know.”
