Ramsey, Charles H. 1948–

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Charles H. Ramsey 1948–

D.C. police chief

Charles Ramsey gained his reputation with the Chicago Police Department in the early 1990s when he created the nationally acclaimed Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS)—a collection of policies based on greater partnerships between police officers and residents. As Chicago’s police superintendent Terry G. Hilliard noted on the Chicago Police Website,” Chuck Ramsey took a general concept—community policing—and helped mold it into an effective crime-fighting strategy here in Chicago. That strategy—the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy—has helped to bring about steady reductions in serious crime in our city. The CAPS strategy has also created new and strong bonds between our police officers and the communities they serve.” As a result of Ramsey’s innovative approach to community policing, he was courted by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for the position of police chief. Ramsey decided to make the move to the nation’s capital and took over as the new police chief of Washington D.C. in April of 1998.

“This is a guy who gets out on the streets and knows what’s going on,” commented Bill Nolan, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago, according to the Washington Post. Throughout his career Ramsey has worked to foster better relationships between police officers and the people they serve, and he has developed a stellar reputation as a communicator and manager. He has been especially successful at addressing racial issues within the police department and the community at large. While in Chicago, Ramsey ordered police recruitment teams to include at least one African American, one white, one Hispanic, and one female officer to help ensure the hiring of women and people of color. He also mandated that notices issued by the police department be printed in English as well as Korean, Vietnamese, Polish, and Spanish.

Grew Up in Dangerous Area

Ramsey grew up on Chicago’s tough South Side, one of three children born to a practical nurse and a bus driver with the Chicago Transit Authority. At the age of 15, he received a graphic lesson of the horrors of crime when a young neighbor boy was stabbed to death in front of the Ramsey home by members of a local gang.” There

At a Glance…

Bom 1948, in Chicago, IL; son of a practical nurse and bus driver; one brother, one sister; divorced; children: Michael.Education: Drug Enforcement Administration Narcotics Supervisors School, 1981; Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy, 1986; Lewis University, B.A. (with high honors), 1990; Lewis University, M.S., 1991.

Career: Enrolled in Chicago Police Department cadet program, late 1960s; sworn in as police officer, 1971; promoted to sergeant, 1977; promoted to lieutenant, 1984; served as commander, Area 1 Detective Division, Bureau of Investigative Services, 1987-89; promoted to captain, 1988; became commander, Patrol Division, 11 th District, Bureau of Operational Services, 1988-89; served as commander, Narcotics Section, Bureau of Investigative Services, 1989-92; was Deputy Chief, Patrol Division, Bureau of Operational Services, 1992-94; created basic operational model for department’s Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS); served as deputy superintendent, Bureau of Staff Services, 1994-98; appointed chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, D.C., 1998-.

Awards and honors: Distinguished Police Cooperation Medal, Korean National Police, 1995; Chicago Police Department: 11 Commendations, 2 Special Service Awards, 1 Problem-Solving Award, 95 Honorable Mentions; Gary P. Hayes Award, Police Executive Research Forum.

Memberships and affiliations: member, Chicago, Police Captains Association, 1988-98; board of directors, St. Jude Police League, 1991-98; member, Police Executive Research Forum, 1994-; Human Resources Subcommittee, Major Cities Chiefs, 1994-.

Addresses : Professional— Metropolitan Police Department, 300 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C 20001.

comes a point in time when that kind of senseless stuff has to stop and we’ve got to turn things around, because society can’t go on like this,” Ramsey reminisced to the Washington Post about this incident in 1998.” And I think that’s why I’m sensitive to the kinds of fear, the kinds of violence, the things that go on in neighborhoods and communities.…”

Ramsey began considering a career in law enforcement after he was befriended by two police officers who often visited the grocery store where he worked. The officers told Ramsey, who was then 19 years-old, that he could make more money if he enrolled in Chicago’s police cadet program. They added that the program would also pay for his tuition at the University of Illinois.” I thought about it, and said, ‘I really don’t want to be a policeman,’” Ramsey told the Washington Post.” The police had quite a bad reputation.”

After a great deal of reflection, Ramsey decided to take the admission tests for the cadet program. As Ramsey remarked to the Washington Post, he was one of only 50 applicants from a field of thousands to be accepted into the program. Four years later, he graduated from the Chicago police academy and was quickly promoted. He became Chicago’s youngest African American sergeant in 1977, then its youngest African American lieutenant in 1984. In 1988 Ramsey became the youngest African American to be promoted to the rank of captain, according to the DC Watch site on the World Wide Web. By his late forties, Ramsey had risen to the rank of deputy superintendent.

During his years on the Chicago police force, Ramsey instituted several of his own innovations. As a commander in the 11th District during the late 1980s, he worked with community groups to devise strategies for fighting crime. In 1989, Ramsey’s precinct was ranked first in Chicago for crime reduction and felony arrests. He also created a crime mapping system that efficiently deployed police officers to areas where they were most needed. While working in the narcotics section of the Bureau of Investigative Services, he developed new strategies for targeting illegal drug activities. These strategies resulted in a dramatic increase in the arrest and conviction of drug dealers.

During the early 1990s, Ramsey received national recognition for his creation of the basic CAPS operational model and played a crucial role in each stage of the CAPS implementation. For his efforts Ramsey received the Gary P. Hayes Award, the Police Executive Research Forum’s most prestigious honor. After he was promoted to deputy superintendent in the Bureau of Staff Services in 1994, Ramsey developed community policing training curricula that were adopted by police officers and supervisors across the United States. He also established a highly-acclaimed pilot program to improve the police department’s response to incidences of domestic violence.

In early 1998, Ramsey was considered for the superintendent’s position in the Chicago police department but lost out to another member of the department. That same year, he was approached by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department as a candidate for its vacant police chief post. After a four-month search, Ramsey was finally selected for the job from a list of over 50 candidates. He was given a five-year contract worth $150,000 annually—a $40,000 raise over his last position in Chicago—and his appointment made him the first person outside of the D.C. department to be named to the post in three decades.” I am convinced we have the best person in America to lead the Metropolitan Police Department,” commented Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton of the D.C. Superior Court about the appointment, in the Washington Post.

Upon his arrival in Washington D.C, Ramsey pledged to” cut wasteful spending, enhance training, improve record-keeping, clear away deadwood personnel and correct the department’s many other problems,” according to Cheryl W. Thompson and Jon Jeter in the Washington Post. He inherited some major challenges, including Washington D.C.’s reputation as a crime-ridden city and a police department that had been accused of numerous incidences of misconduct. He also had to cope with a police infrastructure that was plagued by aging equipment, run-down buildings, obsolete technology, and a shortage of competent police officers.

Instituted Many Changes in D.C.

After only a short time as police chief, Ramsey had concluded that the department would have to be completely overhauled. Thompson’s article in the Washington Post noted that Ramsey decided to hire more civilians to perform jobs currently done by officers, reduce the number of officers assigned to protect the mayor, reassign various top department officials, and allot more funds for training in order to increase the accountability of department employees. A critical part of Ramsey’s agenda, in accordance with his support of community policing, was to get more officers on the streets. His goal was to send teams of officers and residents into the community to create more potent alliances in the battle against crime, and to optimize the elimination of prime breeding grounds for crime such as crack houses.

During his first year, Ramsey initiated recruitment drives at military bases and college campuses in order to lure quality personnel to the department. He also began to push for a change in the educational requirements for new recruits, proposing that those recruited after the year 2000 have at least two years of college. Ramsey viewed education as a vital component for attracting officer candidates who possessed problem-solving abilities and the social skills needed to interact with an increasingly diverse community.

During his stellar career, Ramsey has taught numerous courses on police science and community policing throughout the United States. In 1998, he spoke at a conference in Chicago called” Beyond the Rhetoric—Facing the Challenges of Community Policing” that was attended by more than 700 community policing advocates from around the world.” We can choose our future,” noted Ramsey at the Conference, whose words were recounted on the Chicago Police site on the Web.” We can start to form partnerships now, and we can work with kids who are three years old, four years old, so when they hit those critical years they have options available to them other than crime.”