Washington D.C. Assistant Police Chief Chanel Dickerson revealed that she was told to have an abortion in order to keep her job.
Dickerson, the highest-ranking Black woman with the Metropolitan Police Department, made the stunning confession during a community meeting at Unity Baptist Church on Tuesday. She joined several other Black current and former female D.C. police officers suing the department for discrimination and sexual harassment.
During her testimony, Dickerson said that at just 18-years-old, she had become pregnant during her time as a police cadet. However, her superiors told her that she needed to choose between motherhood and her career.
“I was told I had to have an abortion or be fired from the MPD cadet program,” she stated before ultimately sharing that she never became a mother due to an “employer ultimatum.”
Dickerson also shared an even more troubling situation where a separate female colleague was forced to perform duties “no woman should ever have to do” in order to obtain a shift change due to child care conflicts.
The ten Black women listed in the lawsuit filed last month are suing for $100 million. They allege that the department leadership retaliated against them for filing complaints about their abuse. This week, three additional Black women filed lawsuits detailing similar accounts of workplace abuse.
MPD has announced that they are actively investigating these claims.
