Under the Reorganization Plan, Protective Services will become part of the MPD’s Office of Security Services, which Assistant Chief Wilson now leads. As you know, this Office is currently overseeing the school security function, for which the MPD acquired management responsibility earlier this year. The Office’s success in effectively transitioning school security, including management of the private security contract, will certainly be valuable as we plan for and execute the transition of Protective Services. Chief Wilson is an experienced and very talented law enforcement executive who we actually recruited from the PSD. He understands their mission and their operations. He is aware of, and sensitive to, their needs.  And, along with current PSD Chief Arnold Bracy, I am confident that Chief Wilson will provide the leadership needed to oversee the transition and to move the PSD forward.

Our goal is nothing short of making Protective Services the most professional, most advanced and most effective government protection agency possible. Achieving this goal is critically important in today’s environment. The terrorist attacks of September 11^th, 2001, demonstrated something that we have known for some time: government facilities are prime targets for terrorists, both foreign and domestic. Protecting our government infrastructure is a challenge for every city in the United States. But in the District of Columbia, the risks are even higher and the challenges even greater. And this is true not just for federal facilities (which seem to get most of the public’s attention), but also for our local, DC government infrastructure as well. A strike against this very building – the seat of local government in our Nation’s Capital – would constitute a bold statement by terrorists. And we must do everything in our power to prevent that from happening here at the Wilson Building, or at any facility that the PSD protects.