Charles H. Ramsey (born 1950 in Chicago, IL) was appointed chief of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department on April 21, 1998. He retired on December 28, 2006, having been the longest-serving chief of the MPDC since DC Home Rule and the second longest-serving in Department history. Under Chief Ramsey's leadership crime rates declined by approximately 40 percent, community policing and traffic safety programs were expanded, and MPDC recruiting and hiring standards, training, equipment, facilities and fleet were all dramatically upgraded. Ramsey was appointed Police Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department on January 7, 2008 and retired in January 2016 after serving eight years. He began his career in 1968, at the age of 18, as a Chicago Police cadet, serving for nearly three decades in a variety of assignments.
