Ashan Benedict: Washington DC’s interim police chief

Ashan Benedict, an American of Sri Lankan ancestry, has been appointed interim police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington DC, the US capital.

Benedict has served as the executive assistant chief of police at MPD since April 2021. His main responsibility includes managing the day-to-day operations of the department.

Benedict acknowledged that he is not applying for the job permanently, saying he feels better suited to support the department as interim chief and then returning to his role as executive assistant chief. He said he intends to stay on after a permanent chief is chosen.

Benedict was former head of the New York Division of one of the key law enforcement agencies in the United States: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

As a Special Agent-in-Charge of the State of New York, Benedict led a team of highly trained agents in one of the most challenging jobs in federal law enforcement, including investigating violations of federal laws relating to arson, illegal possession of firearms, explosives, alcohol and tobacco.

Operating under the US Department of Justice, ATF’s mandate included surveillance, interviewing suspects and witnesses, making arrests, obtaining and executing search warrants, and searching for physical evidence and cracking down on money laundering.

In 1998, he became a special agent for the ATF, investigating drug trafficking in Washington, D.C. His career also took him to Baltimore and Los Angeles, where he served as an assistant special agent in charge.

His late father Edward Benedict, who migrated to the US in the 1960s, was a teacher at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx, New York, for almost 20 years while his son graduated from Fordham University. His mother Chitra Benedict arrived in the US in the 1970s.