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D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier’s career Cathy Lanier has broken the mold for a big-city police chief. But has her department fudged its homicide data to achieve a 94 percent closure rate for 2011? Lanier says including homicide cases from other years that were closed last year is routine practice. Some law enforcement veterans say it’s not.
Dec. 19, 2011
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, left, and Rich Marianos, assistant special agent in charge of the Washington field division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, observed dozens of confiscated weapons on display in December at police headquarters in Northwest Washington. Lanier and ATF officials announced the arrests of 70 suspects charged with possession and distribution of firearms and narcotics with a street value of more than $7.1 million.
Marvin Joseph
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The Washington Post
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Sept. 8, 2011
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, left, Chief Lanier and James McJunkin, assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office of the FBI, speak to reporters in September about an unconfirmed terrorist threat to the city. Government officials had said they were investigating a possible al-Qaeda car bomb plot aimed at bridges or tunnels in New York or Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin
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AP
May 9, 2011
Lanier, left, attends the 32nd Washington Area Law Enforcement Memorial Service in Washington, D.C.
Nikki Kahn
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The Washington Post
March 15, 2011
Lanier, right, during a media tour of the department's new state-of-the-art evidence warehouse. The 30,000-square-foot building has 10,000 square feet of administrative space and 20,000 square feet of storage space.
Mark Gail
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The Washington Post
Dec. 30, 2010
Lanier greets James Cohen at a vigil to remember the victims of violence.
Tracy A. Woodward
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The Washington Post
September 28, 2010
Chief Lanier briefs reporters after a shooting following a funeral near 11th and U streets NW that left one wounded and one dead.
Katherine Frey
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The Washington Post
Oct. 13, 2009
D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty conferred in 2009 at the scene after a drive-by shooting at the Clay Terrace housing complex in Northeast Washington.
Ricky Carioti
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The WASHINGTON POST
September 28, 2010
Chief Lanier walks near the scene of a shooting that left one wounded and one dead.
Katherine Frey
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WASHINGTON POST
June 2, 2007
Lanier and Fenty announced the police department’s summer crime-fighting strategy in 2007 near the scene of a recent fatal shooting on 14th Street NW. The pair paused at a memorial to youngster Terry Cutchin, who was killed in a shootout in Northwest Washington.
Bill O'Leary
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The Washington Post
May 3, 2008
Lanier chats with officers. When she became chief in 2007, she took on the challenges of running a police force in a city with serious crime problems and related social problems. Additionally, the appointment of a white female to run a majority-black-male department raised eyebrows and whispers of protest within the department and throughout the city.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
November 2006
Fenty named Lanier as the first permanent female chief of the District's 3,800-member force. Fenty said he wanted to continue the progress against crime made by Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, shown here tipping his hat to Lanier.
Susan Biddle
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The Washington Post
2008
After almost a year on the job, Lanier had a performance hearing before the D.C.Council. In Lanier's first year, gun violence rose sharply, and the number of homicides jumped 7 percent after several years of decline. "I would have liked to have had more impact in the first year than I did on violent crime," she said.
Susan Biddle
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The Washington Post
Lanier addressed recruits gathered for All Hands on Deck in 2007, a controversial exercise that sent hundreds of officers out to walk beats and meet residents informally. One goal was to show that the police department was there to serve people, not just make arrests, although the weekend exercises usually yield at least a few busts.
Katherine Frey
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The Washington Post
August 2011
In Fort Washington, Lanier watched a team of detectives and archaeologists search in 2007 for the remains of Shaquita Bell, a D.C. woman who had been missing for 12 years and whose ex-boyfriend was charged with killing her.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier attended a candlelight vigil during police week in 2008.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Chief Lanier met with then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in 2008. Fenty scoffed at critics who said he meddles in police matters. "She's trained in law enforcement, and I'm not," he said. "I think she understands that we are responsible — she to her 4,000 officers and civilians under her control. But we're first and foremost responsible to the people of the District of Columbia, and we can never forget that."
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
At a strategy discussion at police headquarters in 2008. Lanier said she wanted to convert the D.C. police from a conventional military-style hierarchical culture into one driven from the bottom up.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier attended a graduation ceremony for police recruits at the academy in Southwest Washington in 2008 and playfully posed with Officer D.L. Best. A hugging big-city police chief? Asked about this habit, Lanier smiled. "I've heard that a lot before," she said. "I know all these people, and I like them."
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier spent time with Jaiden Woodard, 3, while visiting a neighborhood in Northeast Washington in 2008. Former D.C. police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr. said expectations for big-city police chiefs are unrealistic. Crime, he said, is rooted in poverty, inadequate schools and dysfunctional families, creating deep problems no police department can cure. "People think police are the ultimate answer to crime and violence. For me, it is building a crime-resistant neighborhood, to mobilize communities to take responsibility." Fulwood commended Lanier for pushing police to have closer relationships with the community, a goal that largely eluded previous chiefs.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Making improvements and untangling police bureaucracy proved harder than Lanier anticipated. "I joke with people that they forgot to give me the magic wand that comes with the job," she said in 2008. "I thought I could say: 'Stop doing it this way, do it that way. Fix this. Fix that,' and it would get fixed. But there is so much process and bureaucracy with everything, so that things that seem simple to me seem like they can take a lifetime."
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier took a spin while on patrol in 2008, and resident Shanaya Farmer, 4, checked her out.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier chatted with residents, including 12-year-old, snake-wearing Devon Garvin, in May 2008.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Mother and daughter visited Montmartre restaurant in Capitol Hill in 2008. Lanier reflected on how her difficult early life has influenced her policing. "It gives me a lot more empathy and tolerance and understanding for things that most people just get annoyed by. I'm sure there were a lot of people annoyed by me for being a 15-year-old mother. I mean, I was on welfare for a while, I was on food stamps, and I had medical assistance. A lot of people would have looked at me and said, ‘You're just sucking on the system, stupid kid.’ But there's a whole lot of circumstances that cause people to find themselves in those conditions."
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier called for assistance for a man having a medical problem in 2008.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
Lanier sat with her dog Special Ed as Teri Shulman styled her hair at a 2008 calendar photo session for Critters for the Cure, a nonprofit group that promotes breast cancer awareness.
Carol Guzy
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The Washington Post
"The biggest thing I've learned is not to judge anybody," Lanier said in 2008.
Carol Guzy
/
The Washington Post
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