Perez Tells City Council She Will Resign

After two more city police officers were sworn in Monday night, Bowie Police Chief Katherine Perez told the City Council Monday she could not pass up the "awesome opportunity" to become the assistant police chief at the Federal Reserve Board.

Perez, who has led the city's 48-member police department since its inception four years ago, will leave her post on Nov. 26, according to a city press release.

Describing her tenure as the top law enforcement officer in the community where she lives as a "24-hour a day job," Perez said she made the decision to resign after talking it over with her family.

"The opportunity came up. I wasn't looking for it," said Perez.

Perez will work in Washington D.C., helping oversee a 160-person force.

Perez was police chief of District Heights for two years before she was appointed by Gov. Robert Ehrlich in Jan. 2006 to be the state's independent juvenile justice monitor, where she made headlines exposing abuses in the state's juvenile justice facilities.

She resigned eight months later to become Bowie's first police chief in September 2006. By early 2007, the department's first six officers were on the street.

Perez serves as the president of the National Association of Women Law Enforcement Executives.

Deputy Police Chief John Nesky will act as the interim chief until the position is filled.

Mayor G. Frederick Robinson said he expected Nesky would apply for the chief position. Nesky would not confirm whether he would put his name up for consideration.

"I appreciate Mayor Robinson's confidence in me and I will be conferring with the City Manager as the process moves forward," Nesky said in an e-mail. 

The new chief will face the challenge of starting the city's approximately $1.1 million communications facility—expected to be operational by mid-2012—as the police force continues to evolve into a full-service department. As part of the department's growth, the city police are taking over the investigations of certain crimes such as first-degree assaults, citizen robberies and burglaries from the county.

City communications coordinator Una Cooper said they are hoping to have a new chief in place before April. The salary range for the position, a city grade 17 employee, is $84,970 - $135,953.

The city will hire the Mercer Group, an Atlanta-based headhunting firm, to conduct the nationwide search for the new chief, Cooper said. The group handled the search in 2006 for the city's first police chief, after 77 percent of voters approved the creation of a municipal police department in a 2005 referendum.

City manager David Deutsch will select the new chief after interviewing the top 7-10 candidates identified by the recruiter, according to Robinson.  Deutsch will brief the city council as the process goes along.

Residents will have input on the city's next police chief in a public meeting similar to one held before Perez was hired, Cooper said.

More than 200 people applied for the position four years ago. Perez, then a volunteer member of the city's public safety committee, put her name in after encouragement from city officials and family members.

Robinson praised her efforts in building the police department from the ground up—hiring officers and putting the department's policies in place.

"She started with nothing. She converted a vision into a functioning, effective police department," Robinson said.

City Councilwoman Geraldine Valentino-Smith said she was also surprised by Perez's announcement.

"She'll be deeply missed. She will always be credited as the chief who started this department. She put us on the path to being the best municipal police department in the state," Valentino-Smith said.