A beloved Georgetown resident and Metropolitan Police Department reserve officer who was killed in the line of duty two years ago may have one of the city’s most chaotic intersections named in his memory.
The D.C. Council is considering a bill to honor Joe Pozell, dubbed a “maestro” for his adept control of the madness that is Wisconsin and M streets Northwest, by ceremonially renaming the intersection “Joe Pozell Square.” The legislation, introduced by Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans, is expected to pass quickly and unanimously.
“I loved to watch tourists, visitors and residents stop at Wisconsin and M and watch in awe as Joe brought calm to a chaotic intersection,” MPD Reserve Officer Gregory Frank said Tuesday during a public hearing on the measure. “Motorists would roll windows down and yell words of appreciation and gratitude as he waved them along.”
A Georgetown resident for decades, Pozell joined the Police Reserve Corps in 2002, focusing his attentions on the Georgetown intersection starting in December 2003. On May 14, 2005, while Pozell directed traffic, a sport utility vehicle passed through the intersection and struck him. He died three days later and became the first reserve MPD officer to be killed on the job.
“No one will ever be able to perform the dance that combined the skill and grace that Joe possessed in keeping safe those that traveled past,” Reserve Corps Sgt. James Lively said.
Ella Pozell, Joe Pozell’s widow, said her husband was so dedicated to that intersection because it desperately needed his attention, and because it kept him moving — forestalling his back pain. People would hand the volunteer officer bottles of water out their car windows. On his jogs through Georgetown, council member Evans would always stop to shake the maestro’s hand.
“My late husband loved this city, loved being at the intersection of Wisconsinand M [streets] to try to make order out of chaos, and that says it all,” Pozell said.
