Metropolitan Police Commander Ross E. Swope has been awarded a Fulbright grant to study community policing issues in the United Kingdom this fall, the U.S. Information Agency and J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board have announced.

A 26-year veteran of the Department, Commander Swope is one of approximately 2,000 U.S. grantees -- and one of only two sworn police officers -- who will travel abroad for the 1999/2000 academic year through the Fulbright program . Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program is designed "to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."

Commander Swope departs later this month, and will spend approximately 3.5 months at Cambridge University studying ways to reduce citizen fear and improve the quality of life in a community policing setting. He is the first member of the MPDC to be selected for the prestigious Fulbright police studies program.

"Ross Swope is a superb representative of our Department and a great ambassador for all of American policing," said Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey . "The research ideas he develops in England will help further the practice of community policing here in the District of Columbia and, through his prolific writing, will help advance community policing nationally," the Chief said.

Commander Swope began his career with the MPDC in 1973 and rose through the ranks, working primarily in the areas of patrol and violent crimes investigations. Among his many accomplishments was the creation of the joint MPDC-FBI Warrant Squad, which has been used as a model for similar units in more than 100 cities across the United States. A former commander of the Department's previous homicide unit, Swope is currently assigned to Operations Command, where he oversees citywide police operations primarily during late-night and early-morning hours.

Commander Swope holds a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Maryland and master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University and American University . He is a graduate of both the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va., and the UK Police Staff College in Bramshill, England. An adjunct professor at American, he writes and lectures internationally on American policing. In February 1999, he instructed the first senior-level management and command course on civil disorder to the multi-ethnic police force in the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.