Miami Beach Police Chief Dan Oates swears in African-American woman as his second in command
Lauretta Hill knows a thing or two about shattering glass ceilings.
Hill was a student at the University of Texas when she heard a police chief talk about opportunities in Arlington, a city within Dallas-Fort Worth area. She made history about two decades later when she became Arlington Police Department’s assistant police chief.
Hill’s roommate at the FBI National Academy, Cheryl Wilson, became the first black woman to lead Lancaster Police Department. It is unclear who inspired who, but in an interview with Dallas News the two women said that not being afraid to speak up in a room full of white men is important.
“You have to make sure you’re in the room and in the conversation,” Hill said. “Both of us took that path to promote up to influence the conversation.”
On Wednesday, there were tears at Miami Beach City Hall, as she made history again. Hill is the city’s first black deputy chief. She comes to Miami Beach, after a series of racially charged scandals over the annual hip-hop weekend. She brings her experience with the NBA All-Star Game and the Super Bowl XLV.
Hill’s achievement comes at a time when women remain “severely under-represented” in police departments across the country, the National Center for Women and Policing reports. The lack of representation is even more critical among black women in leadership positions, The National Organization of Black Women in Law Enforcement reports.
In a statement that was published on a government website, Hill said she remembers the days when she went from ushering people to their seats at NCAA games to working part-time for a security company with the NCAA.
“I was just a little girl from Oak Cliff with a big dream … It’s humbling,” she said in the statement. “I am convinced that anything is possible. If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
