D.C. Officer Honored as Symbol of the City

At Funeral, Leaders Hail Longtime Service of Volunteer, Georgetown Fixture

Before about 1,500 mourners and to the sonorous toll of the Washington National Cathedral's massive Bourdon bell, an ordinary citizen who became a treasured community activist was given a stately funeral yesterday.

Dozens of police department flags from across the region snapped in the wind, paying tribute to Joseph Pozell, a volunteer officer who was struck by a sport-utility vehicle while directing traffic. The brass taps on hundreds of police shoes click-clacked down the church's aisle, and full police honors accompanied his body from the cathedral, down Wisconsin Avenue NW and to a gravesite at Oak Hill Cemetery, where Pozell worked and lived as superintendent for 20 years.

Along the way, firetrucks formed a hook-and-ladder archway at M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, where Pozell had presided over rush hours since December 2003. Hundreds of residents, shop owners and office workers stood at silent attention, several waving at the hearse as Pozell passed one last time through the Georgetown intersection, which was unusually quiet and laced with flower bouquets.

Shirley Pettis, a tourist from Minnesota, was visiting the cathedral with her family when they happened upon the color guard, the ocean of police dress blues, the motorcade and the mayor. Like dozens of other stunned visitors, they were convinced it was the funeral of a world leader. So they asked cathedral tour guide Betty Eaton to explain.

"It was for Joe. The police officer at M and Wisconsin," Eaton said. "He was the first reserve officer to die in the line of duty here. . . . He was such a fixture in Georgetown. Everyone knows Joe."

Pettis nodded and began to understand. "You can really tell people loved him," she said.

Inside the cathedral, Mayor Anthony A. Williams described the 59-year-old Pozell as a symbol of a great city, someone who volunteered his time to help "form order out of chaos" and who "helped hold this city together." The mayor interrupted a six-day trip to the West Coast and returned briefly to Washington for the funeral.

"God bless you, my friend. Thank you for your service, thank you for what you've done for this city," Williams said.

A volunteer in the Georgetown community for the past few decades, Pozell decided to become a reserve officer after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. As an unpaid reservist, he took on the responsibility of taming traffic at one of the "tougher intersections" in the city, said D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, among the many speakers at the funeral.

He studied the craft of directing traffic and did it so artfully that passersby, tourists and even busy professionals often stopped to watch Pozell twirl, wave and whistle in a routine that Ramsey called "a thing of beauty."

The accident occurred May 14, a Saturday, after Pozell backed into the path of an SUV passing through the intersection. He died three days later. No charges were filed against the driver, a 19-year-old woman from McLean.

Ramsey, who visited Pozell's bedside during the hospital vigil, said he will retire the officer's badge number. Pozell was the first reservist to join the 110 D.C. police officers who have died in the line of duty.