Three weeks into his new job as Capitol Police chief, Dine tackles the logistics of working the inauguration — and still has to keep an eye on long-term projects such as restoring confidence within the ranks and preparing a budget in a tight fiscal environment.
“You need to respect the culture, and part of the challenge is, the things that are working well — let ’em work well,” he said. “They don’t write a lot about that in management books.
“It’s not my nature nor style to just come in and do stuff,” he said.
But Dine does want to do more to highlight the agency’s unique responsibility and heritage. From his chair in his still-bare office at Capitol Police headquarters, he pointed across the room to a whiteboard on which was scrawled “USCP — America’s Police Department.”
It’s poised to become the force’s new slogan.
“Historically, the agency has been low-key, and I think everybody likes it that way, so we don’t do a lot of advertising about all the things we do,” Dine said. But “it’s important for people to know about the agency.”
“We protect the people up here,” he explained. “We protect the people, the buildings, the whole campus. And we protect, most of all, the process that runs this country. What other department can say they’re America’s police department?”
His officers will have a chance to show just how unique they are on Monday, Dine said.
“It’s a history-making event,” Dine said of the inauguration. “We tell our officers — which is true for all officers but especially our officers — on these big events that the eyes of the world are on them. That’s not just some trite phrase. The whole world will be watching us. The entire world.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson appears at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church on M Street Northwest for a pre-rally before a march to the White House to protest what is seen as President Barack Obama's lack of action in addressing a variety of problems in black communities.
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