Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Chief Peter Newsham testifies before the House Overshight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations in the Rayburn House Office Building May 9, 2014 in Washington, DC. Newsham and other witnesses testified about the federal government’s enforcement of marijuana laws in the face of the district’s efforts to decriminalize possession of the drug. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Peter Newsham is one step closer to getting the “acting” taken off his current title of Acting Police Chief.

His nomination made it through the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee on Thursday afternoon with a vote of 4-1.

The lone no came from At-large Councilmember David Grosso, who said he was seeking a more “visionary and transformative” chief than Newsham, who has been with the Metropolitan Police Department since 1989 and served as an assistant chief of police since 2002.

Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray voted “present,” essentially abstaining. More than a week ago, spokesperson Janis Hazel told DCist that the majority of phone calls and emails his office was receiving about Newsham were “in opposition.”

The four votes in favor came from Committee Chair Charles Allen, Council Chair Phil Mendelson, At-large Councilmember Anita Bonds, and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh.

“I believe his experience on the force, the bonds he has formed in our community, and the professional growth he has shown reassures me he will continue to help the MPD grow and improve to fit the needs of our community,” Allen said.

He added that “the committee takes very seriously the opposition and concerns that were expressed by some residents and is making several recommendations for the MPD and the executive based on testimony we heard.”

A contingent of “Never Newsham” protesters have been present throughout the public hearings to make their disapproval of the nomination known. “This is one of those ‘people speaking out against power’ kinds of affairs,” says Vasu Abhiraman, an organizer with the Never Newsham campaign. “We’re speaking out for people of color, for women, for the first amendment.”

Prime on opponents’ list is Newsham’s handling of protests, first during the mass arrests at Pershing Park in 2002, which cost the city more than $20 million in lawsuits, and more recently during Inauguration Day. A recent Office of Police Complaints report called for an independent investigation into police conduct on Inauguration Day.

MPD and Mayor Muriel Bowser have not committed to such a review, though Allen spoke favorably of the notion. (He told The Washington Post that he also hopes the investigation includes the positive police actions that day.)

Activist Eugene Puryear, a core organizer with the Stop Police Terror Project D.C. called the vote “an abdication of the oversight responsibilities of the Council to approve someone with a terrible record on civil liberties before all the information is out on Inauguration Day protests where there was clear misconduct.”

Newsham’s nomination goes next to the Committee of the Whole on May 2. MPD has an oversight hearing on April 12, where proponents of an independent review plan to make their case into the public record. Never Newsham activists disrupted the final hearing for his nomination by hog-tying themselves in the same manner protesters were at Pershing Park.