Richard Pennington

Richard Pennington (1947 – May 4, 2017) served as Superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department in New Orleans, Louisiana from 1994 to 2002 and Chief of the Atlanta Police Department in Atlanta, Georgia from 2002 to 2010.

Pennington was born in Little Rock, Arkansas where his mother was a barber with her own shop and his father worked on the Rock Island Railroad. The railroad closed while Pennington was in high school and the family moved to Gary, Indiana, where his father became a crane operator with U.S. Steel as well as a part-time deputy sheriff. Pennington also had an uncle in the Chicago police force. After her children grew up and moved out, Pennington's mother opened a pool hall and a restaurant as well as built apartments as rental units. Pennington also spent childhood summers in rural Alabama with his grandfather.

At 18, Pennington enrolled the U.S. Air Force and served as a member of the U.S. Air Force Security Police unit during the Vietnam War. He began his career in law enforcement in 1968 as an officer in the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD); his first partner was Donald Graham who became publisher of The Washington Post.

While working full-time, Pennington earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from American University and a master's degree in counseling from the University of the District of Columbia.

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