D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee announced Monday that the city will participate in a national campaign meant to increase the number of women in policing. The 30×30 initiative, as it’s called, encourages police departments to make at least 30% of their recruit classes women by the year 2030.

MPD’s current recruit class is 30% women, and women made up more than half of its previous recruit class. Women currently make up 23% of MPD’s sworn force and 47% of its current class of cadets, according to Bowser.

“In terms of representation, we feel very good about the path that we are on, but we also know that we have to be intentional about getting there,” Bowser said at a press conference on Monday.

The announcement comes amid scrutiny of the department’s treatment of Black women. A dozen Black women who worked for MPD have filed two separate lawsuits against the department in recent months, alleging that they’ve faced racial discrimination, sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation for speaking up about their concerns.

On stage during the Monday announcement of the initiative, in fact, was one of the department’s highest ranking officers to sign onto those lawsuits: Assistant Chief Chanel Dickerson. Dickerson has levied accusations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination against members of the department.

Dickerson says she has been sexually harassed by multiple male officers and then retaliated against for reporting unwanted sexual advances, according to a class action lawsuit filed in September. The lawsuit also alleges that Dickerson was retaliated against for calling out fellow officers for sexist and racist behavior, including an email where a Detective Lieutenant used the word “cunt” and a separate incident where a Captain compared Black youth to rats. Separately, multiple news outlets have reported that at an October community meeting, Dickerson said she was told as a pregnant 18-year-old MPD cadet that she “had to have an abortion or be fired.”

The lawsuit also held that Dickerson’s complaints about unfair treatment of Black women in the department “fell on deaf ears,” and that she was retaliated against and passed over for promotions as a result of speaking up.

Asked by a reporter at Monday’s press conference whether she would still recommend MPD as a career path for young women, Dickerson said she “absolutely” would.

“The Metropolitan Police Department Cadet Program and MPD changed the trajectory of my life,” Dickerson said Monday. The officer told DCist/WAMU that she grew up in an “impoverished community” in Ward 8, graduated from Eastern Senior High School and joined MPD’s police cadet program at 17. “I will be forever grateful. It took me from a past path of hopelessness to resilience, so I serve this community with grit and grace and compassion and empathy. I support the 30 by 30 initiative. Women are needed in this profession to help it evolve.”

Morgan Kane, the assistant chief of MPD’s Technical and Analytical Services Bureau, also spoke at the press conference. Kane, who is a Black woman, was asked by a reporter whether she faced conditions like those described by the officers engaged in litigation against the department.

Kane said she could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. “What I can say is that I would never dismiss someone’s lived experience or their personal story,” she said. “But what I can tell you is that the allegations as presented – that’s just not my story.”

Bowser also said she could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but “we are, of course, committed to a department where everyone can thrive … no matter what your background is.”

Contee said that as part of the pledge, MPD agreed to not only increase the percentage of women on its force, but also to “ensure that our policies and procedures are free of all bias, promote equitable hiring, retention and promotion of women officers, and ensure that our culture is inclusive, respectful and supportive of women in all ranks and roles of law enforcement.”

Contee said MPD is also seeking to hire a Chief Equity Officer who will serve as an “ombudsman” who will provide the department with guidance for its equity and inclusion initiatives — and he has committed publicly to hiring a woman for that job.

Bowser and Contee’s renewed commitment to hiring and retaining women in the department is part of a broader push to increase new police hires. Bowser re-stated Monday that her goal was to increase the number of officers on MPD’s force from its current number of 3,500 to 4,000. Bowser and Contee have argued that the department needs to expand its ranks to combat increases in certain categories of crime and reduce the amount of overtime for officers. But activists and members of the D.C. Council have pushed back against this demand, arguing that the city needs to invest money in other efforts to reduce crime — including violence prevention programs and social services that would support the neighborhoods most affected by crime and gun violence.