Sgt. Tania Bell, a 17-year veteran of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, is the new head of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit. Though Bell was the only person to apply for the job, members of the department say she’s highly qualified. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)
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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, April 27, 2007
A lesbian who has served as a patrol officer on the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department for 17 years has been named the new supervisor in charge of the department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier appointed Sgt. Tania Bell to the GLLU post at the recommendation of Lt. Alberto Jova, Lanier’s adviser on gay issues, after Bell became the only person to apply for the job, according to Jova.
“She’s highly qualified,” said Jova, who is gay. “Everyone is confident she’s going to do an outstanding job.”
The position became open earlier this year when Sgt. Brett Parson, who headed the unit since 2001, requested and received a transfer to a full-time street patrol position in the Third Police District.
Bell, a native of Fort Washington, Md., said she began her police work in 1990 in the Third District, which includes Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and other neighborhoods with large concentrations of gay residents. She later served in the Fifth District and the Youth Division before returning to the Third District in 2002, when she was promoted to the rank of sergeant, Bell said.
Just prior to becoming head of the GLLU, Bell served as a supervisor for the Third District’s Patrol Service Area 306, which includes Dupont Circle.
Former Police Chief Charles Ramsey created the GLLU in 2000 and appointed Parson to head the unit one year later. Although other big city police departments had gay liaison units at that time, the D.C. unit created by Ramsey became the first to be given full law enforcement powers to make arrests and conduct investigations into crimes against gays and transgender persons. Most of the units in other cities were limited to educational and public relations functions.
This week, Parson joined Jova in describing Bell as being highly qualified for her new job as his replacement.
“Tania brings a wealth of experience to this position,” he said. “And most importantly, she brings excitement and enthusiasm to the position. She will be a wonderful fit and I think the community will grow to love her.”
Last month, Lanier designated Jova as Bell’s supervisor and gave him authority to oversee the operations of the GLLU while carrying out other duties in the Office of the Chief of Police.
But this week, Lanier transferred Jova from police headquarters downtown to the GLLA offices at Dupont Circle and gave him the title of commanding officer of the GLLU, according to Peter Rosenstein, an adviser to Mayor Adrian Fenty on gay issues.
Rosenstein said Lanier sent him an e-mail on Wednesday informing him of Jova’s new assignment, and Bell told the Blade she, too, was informed that Jova will relocate to the GLLU office.
Bell will be in charge of the day-to-day activities of the liaison unit, Rosenstein said Lanier told him in her e-mail.
Lanier and Jova could not be reached for comment by Blade press time on Jova’s job transfer.
Bell, like Jova, will work out of the unit’s Dupont Circle office, and will supervise the unit’s five full-time officers and four volunteer civilian staff members. Lanier has said she will soon appoint another two full-time officers to the unit.
“I’m so excited about this,” Bell said Monday.
“I would like to make sure we continue what we have been doing,” Bell said. “As the saying goes, ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.’ I will be talking to the officers to get their ideas about what we might do a little differently, but I’m mostly going to continue the kind of things we’ve been doing.”
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