One of the newest members of the Metropolitan Police Department comes from a long line of officers.
Daryle Cooper has only been a D.C. police officer for a few months, but his mother and stepfather each have more than 20 years with MPD.
His mother pinned his badge the day he graduated from the academy – a day she’d been anticipating for years.
“He has a picture in a cop car when he was like 2 years old,” Lt. Shaquinta Gaines said.
The family connections to the department go beyond his parents.
“I have a twin brother who’s down the Harbor Branch,” Sgt. Marcus Gaines said.
“My dad was a police officer for 33 years, so growing up watching him,” he added.
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With a mother, father, uncle and grandfather as police officers, there wasn’t much doubt Cooper would join the force, too.
“I always knew what I wanted to do,” he said.
Chief Robert Contee knows firsthand that family members in the same department aren’t uncommon. His sister is a D.C. police officer. But what about one family member outranking another?
“We tease them about that all the time, and right now, it looks like mom’s holding the rank,” he said.
“As of today, she’s the boss, she’s in charge, man, and again, we’re just happy to have them,” Contee said.
“The rank stays at work,” Lt. Gaines said.
As for whether she worries about her son doing a job she knows can be dangerous: “Being a mom, of course you will worry,” she said. “He’s watched us for his entire life doing this job, and we also make sure we, you know, speak to him and, you know, give him little nuggets to take out there, you know, when he’s patrolling, because it is a dangerous profession, but I am confident that, you know, he will succeed.”
