D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey smiled like a proud father Monday as Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty announced his replacement.
In naming Cmdr. Cathy Lanier the city’s next top law enforcer, Fenty not only selected the District’s first female police chief, but also handpicked the homegrown talent that Ramsey has cultivated ever since arriving from Chicago eight years ago.
Fenty chose Lanier, he said, because the city “needed someone whose knows the department, knows community policing, knows homeland security, is tireless, hard working, energetic and who would work all night.”
Lanier began with the D.C. force in 1990, rose through the ranks and at different times commanded the Fourth District, Special Operations and the newly created Office of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University in management, a master’s degree in homeland security and defense from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of the District of Columbia. She also attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and is a graduate of the FBI Academy.
When Lanier was chosen to run the Office of Homeland Security, Fenty asked Ramsey about her qualifications. The police chief told him that she’d someday make a great police chief and that conversation remained with the mayor-elect as he was putting together his Cabinet-level team, Fenty said.
As commander of special operations, Lanier oversaw nine units, including the SWAT, K-9, helicopter and harbor units and was responsible for 430 special events in D.C. each year. At the same time, she established the initial branch of homeland security. What started after Sept. 11, 2001, with seven officers ballooned to 300 specially trained people to protect the city from terrorist attacks, pandemic diseases and natural disasters.
Lanier grew up in Prince George’s County and comes from a family of public service. Her father retired as deputy chief in the Prince George’s County Fire Department. Her mother, now retired, worked more than 30 years in the U.S. Courts in D.C. Of her two brothers, one works as a detective in Greenbelt and the other is a captain in the Prince George’s fire department. Lanier has a 24-year-old son.
