Two major US cities this week announced full-time appointments of black women to lead their police forces.
In Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that Pamela A. Smith will be the next chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. And in Louisville, Kentucky, Acting Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel is formally taking the job of new boss. Both will be the first black women to hold their respective positions.
«Joining the MPD as your police chief is a historic occasion,» Smith said at a Monday news conference 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 leading public safety in the District of Columbia.»
Louisville’s Gwinn-Villaroel is tasked with leading a force that has faced years of scrutiny since the 2020 police shooting of Breonna Taylor. The city has gone through several bosses and interim leaders since the death of Taylor, a black woman shot and killed in a police raid gone wrong.
Gwinn-Villaroel had served as the third acting chief since Taylor’s death. Former acting boss 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 to announce the appointment. “And in the last few months, it has become abundantly clear that the best person to do this job is already in the job.”
Gwinn-Villaroel faces challenges recruiting new officers and restoring community trust after the US Department of Justice announced in March that it had found Louisville police involved in a pattern of violation of constitutional rights and discrimination.
data from the Department of Justice shows that, as of 2020, about 10% of all federal law enforcement officers were black, and about 15% were women.
The appointments of Smith and Gwinn-Villaroel come a month after Keechant Sewell, the first black woman to head the New York Police Department, resigned after just 18 months in the role.