Colonel Ann C. Assumpico, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police and Director of the Department of Public Safety, today announced that she will retire next month (January 2019), after launching the most diverse State Police Training Academy in the state’s history.
“My goal from day one was to increase diversity throughout our ranks, to more accurately reflect the ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic communities our agency serves,” Colonel Assumpico said. “I am immensely proud of the steps we have taken to achieve this goal, including promoting women and minorities in all ranks and creating a new recruitment process that resulted in a record number of women and minority recruits for the State Police Training Academy Class that is scheduled to begin on January 14, 2019. I have full confidence that these new recruits will help our agency better serve and protect members of all communities throughout our state.”
Colonel Assumpico was appointed as Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police and Director of the Department of Public Safety on November 3, 2016, becoming the first woman to lead the agency since it was founded in 1925. She was the 13th superintendent of the agency.
Colonel Assumpico, who has been a law enforcement officer for nearly 42 years, has been a member of the Rhode Island State Police since 1992. Previously, she served as a Correctional Officer at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institutions for eight years and then joined the Coventry Police Department, where she served for seven years.
She was making plans to retire when Governor Gina M. Raimondo asked her to stay on and assume command of the Rhode Island State Police, which she gladly did.
At the time of her appointment, Colonel Assumpico said one of her top priorities was to increase diversity within the agency and she has made it her mission to do so.
Nearly one-third of the promotions she made within her first year were women and members of minority groups (10 of 36 people), including two high-ranking members of her command staff. After undertaking the first-ever outside assessment of the agency, Colonel Assumpico revamped recruitment and retention strategies for current and prospective members of the State Police. She launched the recruitment drive one year ago, resulting one of the largest, most diverse pools of candidates in the history of the agency. At least 44 percent of the 1,403 applicants were women and/or members of minority groups.
After an intensive testing and screening process, a record number of highly qualified women and minorities were selected for the Rhode Island State Police Training Academy. As a result, when the Training Academy gets underway on January 14, nearly half of the 40 candidates will be women and minorities. This includes 31 men and 9 women; 19 of whom are members of minority groups.
Colonel Assumpico also changed recruitment and hiring practices for the Rhode Island Capitol Police to improve diversity there, as well. Last week, she oversaw the graduation of 15 new Capitol Police Officers, which included 13 men and 2 women, including five members of minority groups.
“I am proud of the efforts we have made over these past two years and believe we have set a good path for the future, to help continue the agency’s storied traditions of providing service with excellence while also ensuring that our troopers truly reflect members of the communities we serve now and, in the future,” Colonel Assumpico said.
