New MPD Chief of Police Robert Contee speaks at ANC where he grew up

 

I’m going to do something a little different with this week’s ANC meeting. This week I’ll be writing in depth about last night’s special guest, newly installed MPD Chief of Police Robert Contee. Next week I’ll be writing up my typical summary of the meeting.

It’s interesting when a police chief of a major city, the capital city even, drops in to introduce himself at a neighborhood committee meeting. It’s far more interesting if the new chief is the first African American to hold the post in two decades and was appointed during a pandemic and national reckoning on race and policing. And it’s nearly mind-bending to consider that, in addition to all that, this new chief, Robert J. Contee III, grew up in Carver Terrace, within the neighborhood holding the meeting, and he came of age during the incredibly violent crack epidemic.

Even over Zoom, Contee’s appearance before ANC 5D last night was a bit of a homecoming. Contee, who is technically Acting Chief until confirmed by DC Council, attended the now closed Spingarn High School and still has family in Carver-Langston. “My mom and a whole lot of folks I grew up with are grinning ear to ear,” he said.

So is this native son a different kind of police chief? Contee’s stated priorities are similar to that of his predecessors as well as Mayor Bowser. In July, DC Council passed a city budget cutting about $10 million from MPD — less than two percent of their operating budget — including the mayor’s proposed increases to the Cadet Program for 18-24 year olds. Contee wants to increase the number of officers, which declines each year as the city’s population increases. “That keeps me up at night,” he said. There are currently 3672 officers according to Contee, double the national average of officers per 10,000 residents.

Contee also talked enthusiastically about the Cadet Program, which he joined in 1989. “I’m a product of the DC police Cadet Program,” he said. “That program literally saved my life.” According to Contee, the program has about 100 cadets, 60 of whom are African American women. Contee said that the program is important not only to the MPD, but also to the participants, and that it is an important investment in young residents.

Recently, MPD stepped in to assist the Capitol Police and fought the insurrection at the Capitol alongside them. Those efforts, as well as an increase in some kinds of violent crime during the pandemic, may have tempered calls to defund and abolish the police from this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. In ANC 5D over the last year, there has sometimes been tension between demands for racial justice and police accountability and demands for more police attention and crime prevention.

Commissioner Zachary Hoffman, as well as some attendees, asked questions about what changes towards defunding, or demilitarizing, of the police Contee would be willing to accommodate. As Contee noted, “defund the police” means different things to different people. While some groups like Defund MPD want to literally eliminate and abolish MPD as we know it, others want to see some responsibilities (like interacting with those experiencing homelessness) and associated funding transferred from the police to other social services, some of which may not currently exist. For example, Contee cited a hypothetical situation in which a homeless person was breaking car windows in the middle of the night. Currently, the police is the only agency equipped to handle that, he said.

D.C. has previously implemented many policies regulating police force and conduct, including seven of the eight recommendations of the “8 Can’t Wait” campaign. Amongst other trainings, every recruit participates in a 10-hour curriculum at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Still, according to MPD’s own Use of Force report, “reported use of force incidents have increased 84% since 2015.”

Contee stressed, as many MPD representatives have before, the need for collaboration and connection between the police and the community. He said that his experiences, both in the neighborhood and as an officer who has worked in many different capacities, informed his perspective as chief. For now, says Contee, his primary focus continues to be violent crime. “Whatever I put forth, it’ll be transparent and let me sleep good at night.”

Photo through Creative Commons from US Marshals