GW Police Department officials posted a job listing for an opening in the force’s third-highest rank following Captain of Operations Gabe Mullinax’s departure in April, one of a handful of openings in the department over the past few months.
The police lieutenant position — which will be one of 22 supervising officers that officials plan to arm — calls for candidates who can “maintain proficiency” with firearms, weaponry and police equipment, in addition to other schooling, age and certification requirements. Since Mullinax departed to take a position at the University of Maryland’s police department in April after about two years at GW, Neile Hicks — who began working with GWPD in 2023 — has been serving both in Mullinax’s former role as interim captain of operations and as lieutenant, third shift, according to GWPD’s website.
In early April, officials posted a job listing for Mullinax’s former position, which they have since taken down. Mullinax was among the first two officers that officials armed in September.
Police lieutenant is the third-highest-ranked tier of officers on the force, under GWPD Chief James Tate as well as Captain Ian Greenle and interim Captain Hicks. The new lieutenant would join Lieutenants Christina Hunsicker, Sean Brown and Hicks.
The job posting states that the police lieutenant will serve as the primary manager for their assigned shift and is an “integral part” of GWPD’s leadership team, which manages all public safety functions at GW. The lieutenant will play a “vital role” in recruiting and hiring officers, training in supervision and tactical response as well as engage community members for “an increased community policing focus,” the posting reads.
The posting states the lieutenant’s salary would sit between $82,689.32 and $111,583.60.
In the last month, GWPD officials have also posted three other job listings — a police sergeant, which ranks just below the lieutenants, a police corporal and a police officer. The three job listings come amid GWPD’s struggles to fill police officer positions, which Tate said in April is a reflection of a national trend of fewer applicants with less experience in the years following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in 2020.
Tate said in April that GWPD planned to hire three supervisors in the following weeks to fill officer vacancies. Christopher Coleman, who worked for the department for 14 years and moved up the ranks from police officer to lieutenant, left GW in May 2023 and now serves as a police officer in Maryland’s Howard County, according to his LinkedIn.
“Our goal is to be the premier university law enforcement agency in the region; best paid, best equipped and best trained,” all three job listings read.
