((PKG))  PROTESTS / POLICE DEPUTY  
((Banner:  Racism, Seen from Inside))  
((Reporter:  Marsha James)) 
((Camera/Editor:  Gabrielle Weiss))
((Additional Camera:  Virginia Gunawan))  
((Map:  Laurel, Maryland))   
((Main character:  1 female))  
((NATS))  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
So, here we have me graduating from the police academy.  
This is my chief at the time.  Quite happy to have a gun and 
a badge.  I was working on the bus.  We used to wear plain 
clothes on the bus.  And that's me with the general 
manager.  I had just made sergeant.  I remember being the 
only African-American female in that group of promotees.  I 
remember the levels of competitiveness and the gratification 
that I was able to compete at that level and excel.   
((NATS))  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department))  
My name is Tracy Simmons and I am a retired Deputy Chief 
of the Metro Transit Police Department.  I served there for 
over 25 years in various capacities.  I came up through the 
ranks and I retired at the rank of Deputy Chief and I was the 
first African-American woman to reach that rank at my police 
agency.   
It was very intimidating for a young woman, especially a 
young black woman.  I was in a highly, you know, Anglo 
workplace with majority male and it was challenging.  You 
had to get in to fit in, to get along and really, you really still 
weren't a part of.  Be clear.  You know, in the police 
department, there was rampant sexism, rampant racism.  
There were remarks made in roll calls that, you know, I 
wouldn't dare repeat.  And as I was there, because I was, 
because I was there, I got to be a voice for things that 
needed to change and be different.  
((NATS))  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
There'll be a certain segment of racism because we come 
from those same communities.  Police officers come from 
those same communities and they bring along with them 
their belief systems, their worldviews and their cultural 
experiences.  It's, I think it's come to a head.  I think there's a 
lot of things that we get to see now because of technology 
that has occurred for many, many years.  And that now it’s 
kind of in our face.  We all had an opportunity to see George 
Floyd, you know, be murdered right on television.  I've never 
seen anything like it in my life and I don't think most 
Americans have.   
((NATS))  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
I think though, our country is in a break down and I think that 
around police brutality and law enforcement, I would tell the 
protesters that I support them wholeheartedly.  I would tell 
them to be thoughtful and be aware that there are other 
stories and other spaces.   
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
That's just part of the story but it’s not the real story.  It 
doesn’t tell the story of the ten police officers that got killed 
last week.  It doesn't tell that story.  Or guy down the street 
that got shot by other assailants who the police locked up 
and now they're in jail.  So, there are a lot of stories here to 
be told.   
((NATS))  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
And so, I'm hopeful.  I do think that there are definite ways 
that we can begin to change the culture and we get to just, 
you know, retire out those that want to hold onto the old 
ways.  It's not like….It's changing.  And those that aren't 
ready to change need to move on.  They need to go. 
((Courtesy:  Reuters))
((NATS:   
Because he changed not only this country, not only the 
United States.  He changed the world.  George Floyd 
changed the world.  
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
We get to say what legacy George Floyd's death has on us 
as a people.   
((Courtesy:  Reuters))   
((Tracie Simmons, Retired Deputy Chief, Metro Transit 
Police Department)) 
As long as people feel like it isn’t going to die out like all the 
rest of them, because those four officers will go to jail for a 
very long time.  But it doesn't mean I feel super safe about 
my son driving at night. It just doesn't.