Richard Pennington (November 26, 1946 – May 4, 2017) served as Superintendent of the

New Orleans Police Department The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, while the city itself is div ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

from 1994 to 2002 and Chief of the Atlanta Police Department in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

from 2002 to 2010.

Early life

Pennington was born in

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

where his mother was a barber with her own shop and his father worked on the

Rock Island Railroad The original Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (CRI&P RW, sometimes called ''Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway'') was an American Class I railroad. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock. At ...

. The railroad closed while Pennington was in high school and the family moved to

Gary, Indiana Gary ( ) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 69,093 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it Indiana's List of municipalities in Indiana, eleventh-most populous city. The city has been historical ...

, where his father became a crane operator with

U.S. Steel The United States Steel Corporation is an American steel company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It maintains production facilities at several additional locations in the U.S. and Central Europe. The company produces and sells steel products, ...

as well as a part-time deputy sheriff. Pennington also had an uncle in the Chicago police force. After her children grew up and moved out, Pennington's mother opened a pool hall and a restaurant as well as built apartments as rental units. Pennington also spent childhood summers in rural

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

with his grandfather.

Early career and education

At 18, Pennington enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served as a member of the U.S. Air Force Security Police unit during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. He began his career in law enforcement in 1968 as an officer in the

Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC), more commonly known locally as the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and, colloquially, DC Police, is the primary law enforcement agency for the Washington, D.C., District ...

(MPD); his first partner was Donald Graham who became publisher of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

''. While working full-time, Pennington earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in criminal justice from

American University The American University (AU or American) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Its main campus spans 90-acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, in the Spri ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in counseling from the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C., United States. The only public university in the city, it traces its origins to 1851 and opened in its current form in 1 ...

Career

Pennington served in MPD for 26 years and was eventually promoted to assistant chief. In October 1994, he became police chief in New Orleans, where he was credited with major improvements in what had been a poorly regarded and corruption-ridden police department. In fact, conditions in the department were so bad before Pennington arrived, the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

was threatening to move in and take over the city's law enforcement. On the day of his inauguration, he was notified of an investigation that one of his officers had murdered a witness. Under Pennington, more than 350 officers were disciplined, fired (more than 100) or indicted for misconduct, while one officer would become the second sentenced to death for violent crimes. Pennington was a candidate in the 2002 New Orleans mayoral election. Although he led in most pre-election polls, he finished second to Ray Nagin in the first round of voting, and lost the

runoff election The two-round system (TRS or 2RS), sometimes called ballotage, top-two runoff, or two-round plurality, is a single-winner electoral system which aims to elect a member who has support of the majority of voters. The two-round system involves one ...

to Nagin by a margin of 59% to 41%. Shortly thereafter, he resigned as New Orleans police chief. In July 2002, Shirley Franklin hired Pennington as the police chief of Atlanta, Georgia. He served in that position until 2010, overseeing a 39% reduction in violent crime in the city. In 2009, Pennington was a defendant in a lawsuit which alleges that he, along with other senior officers, engaged in a criminal conspiracy to retaliate against a police officer who testified on behalf of a defendant in a bond hearing in federal court. The case, ''Reid v. City of Atlanta, et al., United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division'', is pending on cross motions for summary judgment. Pennington was also a defendant in the federal civil rights lawsuit of ''Calhoun v. Pennington'', filed in November 2009 on behalf of patrons of the Atlanta Eagle, a

gay bar A gay bar is a Bar (establishment), drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communi ...

that was subject to the

Atlanta Eagle police raid The Atlanta Eagle police raid was a police raid targeting the Atlanta Eagle, a gay bar in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. The raid occurred on September 10, 2009, due to anonymous tips alleging that illegal drug use and ...

in 2009.

Personal life

Pennington was married from 1974 to 1984 and had one son from this marriage. He remarried in 1992 and had a second son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pennington, Richard 1947 births 2017 deaths American University School of Public Affairs alumni African-American police officers People from Gary, Indiana Chiefs of the New Orleans Police Department University of the District of Columbia alumni Chiefs of the Atlanta Police Department Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia officers People from Little Rock, Arkansas Candidates in the 2002 United States elections Louisiana Democrats United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American politicians