Retiring Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee says the pressure of the job also affected his family.
Contee, who signed up to be a D.C. police cadet when he was 17, has a wife and two children.
“It’s the protesters outside of your house,” he said. “It’s the threats that you get when you make decisions that people don’t like. Your family, they also have to deal with the impacts of those things.”
One night last September, protesters yelled at his wife and children as they returned home, Contee said.
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“One of the things that really stood out for me, as you mentioned, when there were protesters that showed up at my home,” he said. “There were some pretty derogatory things that were written on the sidewalk, and my son, he’s 10 years old, but that really had an impact on him, and I will not forget that.”
Despite the pressure the job puts on him and his family. Contee is proud of his three decades as a D.C. police officer. When he interacts with today’s cadets, the former cadet hopes he’s seeing a future chief.
“Like a reflection of me when I see these young people who aspire to be police officers, police chiefs, police sergeants, etc., kind of have a similar story – some way, shape, form or fashion – that I have,” Contee said. “They come from humble beginnings, and they’re on their way, they’re on the road, they’re on the path, man.”
Contee’s last day as chief, a position he was appointed to in 2021, is Wednesday. He starts a new job as an assistant director at the FBI in mid-July.
Assistant Chief Ashan Benedict will be interim chief while Mayor Muriel Bowser conducts a search for a permanent replacement.
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