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Articles
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| Police units get familiar leader |
VOICE writes, "Police units get familiar leader
BY IAN THOMS
Sgt. Brett Parson led the Metropolitan Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit to accolades and praise during his six years at the helm, but in January he left the unit for patrol duty. Shortly thereafter, Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she was considering decentralizing the department’s liaison units, a plan decried by many activists and political leaders.
Now, Parson is back, this time in charge of all the city’s liaison units — Gay and Lesbian; Latino; Asian; and Deaf and Hard of Hearing. And Lanier has backed away from decentralization, instead placing them under a single official who reports to her.
Parson said though he would prefer patrol work, which he was doing in the Third District before his reassignment, he looks forward to continuing the success of the units.
“I don’t think I’ve made it a secret that my preference right now in my career is to be out in the field,” Parson said. “[But] I’m happy to do whatever the chief wants me to do.”"
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In a release, Lanier states: “I am very excited about the units falling under one centralized command under Brett’s leadership. His experience leading the GLLU and its members makes him uniquely qualified to oversee the operations of the other units with similar missions.”
Initial responses from community leaders have been positive.
In an e-mail to The Voice, Rick Rosendall, vice president of political affairs for the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., and a critic of Lanier’s decentralization plan, said: “We are awaiting further details about the restructuring before commenting in detail, but we have a high opinion of Sgt. Parson and look forward to working with him as we have for several years.”
Eugenio Arene, president and chief executive officer of the Latino Federation of Greater Washington, said his primary concern is how the officers in the Latino Liaison Unit will be deployed. He said he wants to make sure that as many Spanish-speaking officers as possible are placed in communities with large populations of Latinos, such as Adams Morgan. “It doesn’t make any sense to me to move bilingual officers to, say, Anacostia,” he said.
Parson said details of how the units will work have not been decided but he hopes to build on his experience with the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit.
“I think the challenge here is to use the kinds of things we did with the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit while retaining the integrity and the uniqueness of each unit,” Parson said.
The units will be led in day-to-day operations by their current leaders — Sgt. Tania Bell, with the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit; Sgt. Carlos Mejia, with the Latino Liaison Unit; Sgt. Kenny Temsupasiri, with the Asian Liaison Unit; and Officer Myra Jordan, with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Unit.
Parson said spreading the units’ influence beyond a certain area is important because they serve communities with no geographical bounds, even if there is a concentration in a certain neighborhood.
Parson added that he believes the new structure will help the units because they will have a higher level of importance within the police department, as they now fall within Lanier’s office.
“I think it’s important what the chief has done here,” Parson said. “It recognizes the commonalities of the units, and it raises their stature within the department.”
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Posted on Oct 18, 2007 19:29pm.
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