Chief Charles H. Ramsey
Metropolitan Police Department, Washington, DC
To each of the new members of the Metropolitan Police Department, let me say congratulations. You have worked hard. You have trained hard. You have demonstrated—to yourselves, to your peers, and to this Department—that you have what it takes to be a police officer. You should all be very, very proud of what you have accomplished by being here today.
But today is not about endings. It is about beginnings ... new beginnings for each of you ... and for the Metropolitan Police Department and the communities we serve. Today, you become members of the finest, the most fulfilling and, yes, the most important profession that I know of ... the profession of policing.
I have had the privilege of serving in this profession for more than 30 years now. And throughout my career, there have been certain moments that stand out in my mind as reminders of just how important ... how noble ... it is to be a police officer.
One of those moments occurred just a few weeks after I became chief last spring. It came during a visit to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. To see up close—in such a vivid and powerful way—the atrocities of Nazi Germany ... the suspension of basic human and civil rights ... and the manner in which the madness of that time developed so rapidly and became so commonplace—it really got me thinking all over again about the role that we, as police officers, play in a free and democratic society. It was also during that visit that I decided all future recruit classes would spend a day at the Holocaust Museum as part of the regular recruit curriculum. I am pleased that yours was the first class to take part in this program. I know it was a valuable experience for you, as it will be for all future recruits in the MPDC.
Earlier this month, I held my monthly Command Staff meeting at the Holocaust Museum as well, because I want our commanders and other leaders to be thinking about these issues too. During our meeting, one of the Museum staff members told us a story about a group of high school students who were touring the Museum some time ago, as part of a pilot education program involving DC public schools.
Throughout the tour and the discussion time that followed, Museum staff were having a difficult time getting the teenagers to open up ... to ask questions ... to discuss their feelings. And it was only after a pretty long period of time that one of the high schoolers finally stepped forward and asked a question.
Her question was simple, but profoundly perceptive: "Where were the police in all of this?," she asked.
Where were the police? Aren’t they the ones who are supposed to stop this kind of thing from happening?
It is these questions, from the mouth of a teenager, that really get to the heart of my message to you today.
1 
