Feb 16, 2007  |  By: LOU CHIBBARO J  | COMMENTS     

Interim Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier last week named an openly gay lieutenant and 16-year veteran of the force as her adviser on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender affairs.

Lt. Alberto Jova, 40, will remain in his current post as an assistant in the Office of the Chief of Police while assuming new duties as both adviser on gay issues and “overseer” of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.

Jova said he would coordinate the search for a new commander of the unit following the transfer of Sgt. Brett Parson, the former head, to the Third Police District. Parson assumed new duties last month as a supervisor of street patrols, saying he wanted to return to community policing following his four-year tenure as unit commander.

A native of Cuba, Jova and his family immigrated to the United States in 1971 and settled in suburban Maryland. Jova has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in management from Johns Hopkins University.

Since joining the D.C. Police Department in 1989, Jova rose from the ranks of officer and sergeant to lieutenant while serving in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Police Districts and in the Mobile Force, Internal Affairs and Force Investigation units before beginning his current post in the Office of the Chief.

Washington Blade: You sent a message to the gay community saying that Chief Lanier has named you as her adviser on the unit and gay matters. Could you explain what you’ll be doing?

Alberto Jova: The GLLU is going to answer to me. I’m in the process of finding a supervisor, who will oversee the officers and the day-to-day operations, but that person is going to be reporting directly to me and I’m going to be reporting directly to the chief of police. We’re in the process right now of getting that together.

Blade: Will you remain in the chief’s office?

Jova: I will, absolutely.

Blade: Will the new supervisor of the unit have the equivalent position that Brett Parson had?

Jova: Yes. But we’re going to take that up a notch. I’m going to be responsible for all the interactions involving the GLBT community and I report directly to the chief. So it eliminates the chain of command at the District, for more accountability and more exposure to the chief. It’s a good thing.

Blade: Will you have other duties at the chief’s office?

Jova: Oh yeah. I serve as a liaison to the council members, I work on special needs projects, I still have my work here at the chief’s office. It’s just one added responsibility, but I’m very excited about it and I can handle it.

Blade: Do you have an official title?

Jova: It’s just a lieutenant at the Office of the Chief of Police.

Blade: Where does the selection process for a new head of the unit stand now?

Jova: I sent out a letter to all the stakeholders because I want to ask a few people to be part of a selection committee. And then we are going to send out a vacancy announcement so I can have it open to everyone and anyone who wants to apply for the position. And then I’ll make a selection after I get those applications in and we meet a couple of times with the selection committee.

Blade: Is there a potential pool of candidates for that job? Do we know how many “out” officers there are in the department?

Jova: I don’t know. It’s impossible to gauge that. Because I haven’t put out the announcement yet, I haven’t gotten any applications yet and I don’t know how many people are interested in that.

Blade: Isn’t at least one sergeant interested?

Jova: Tanya Bell. Yes. I did talk to her and she seems to be interested. But I just don’t know how many others are going to be interested.

Blade: How long have you been on the force?

Jova: It will be 17 years this July. At the time I first applied to get on this department, I read a full-page ad in the Washington Blade from the Metropolitan Police Department requesting that members of the gay and lesbian community apply for a job. … It would have been in January or February of 1989 … and that’s why I applied. I said to myself, “If there’s a department that is recruiting open members of the gay community, that’s the department for me.”

Blade: In terms of policies, will Chief Lanier continue with the same policies as Chief Ramsey concerning outreach to the gay community?

Jova: Absolutely. Look ...