Chanel Dickerson, one of the D.C. police’s highest ranking Black female officers, is among 10 women involved in the lawsuit, which accuses the department of widespread discrimination and sexual harassment.
On Thursday, Dickerson said in an interview that she will remain a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The District has not commented on the conduct described in the suit, but Chief Robert J. Contee III has called the allegations unacceptable. He hired a newfor women.
“We should be the model department,” Dickerson said. “What we do here and how we treat people will reverberate around the country … I don’t want anyone to think I don’t value the Metropolitan Police Department. We just need to get it right, and get it better.” In 2017, during her first week as a commander, Dickerson found herself in the national spotlight when she altered the department’s social media policy so that officials would send tweets about every missing person deemed “critical.” Police had previously only sent such tweets about young children, older adults or those believed to be in danger.
The result was a deluge of police tweets about people, particularly children of color, who had disappeared. Though nearly all eventually turned up safe, the messages caused a stir, sparking the police chief and mayor to hold public meetings as rappers, NBA stars and television personalities retweeted the all-caps bulletins with the hashtag #missingdcgirls.
At her retirement ceremony, according to a video provided by the department, Contee said that like him, the police force for Dickerson “became a lifeline at a very early age.” He noted her career “hasn’t been easy.”
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