After an extensive public search, the board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, on Apr. 16, confirmed Bryan Norwood as the new vice president for public safety.

“Bryan Norwood brings more than 25 years of public safety experience to the Airports Authority,” said Jack Potter, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. “We look forward to the leadership and innovation he will bring to our Police and Fire and Rescue departments from previous success managing emergency responders in other cities.”

Norwood began his law enforcement career as a police officer in New Haven, Conn., as a 1989 graduate of its police academy. After rising through the ranks to assistant chief in 2002, Norwood was appointed chief of police in Bridgeport, Conn., in 2006; then chief of police in Richmond, Va., in 2008. He was also a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from 1998 to 1999.

Norwood’s achievements include the implementation of several initiatives to advance community policing and citizen involvement. He was chairman of the Central Virginia Law Enforcement Chief Executive Association and is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

At the Airports Authority, Norwood will oversee the management and operations of the Authority’s Fire and Rescue Department and Police Department at Reagan National and Dulles International airports and theDulles Toll Road. Both departments are full-service agencies, protecting the safety of thousands of employees, more than 100,000 daily highway commuters and more than 40 million airline passengers per year.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, established in 1987 by the governments of Virginia and the District of Columbia, manages and operates Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports, which together serve more than 40 million passengers a year. The Airports Authority also operates and maintains the Dulles Airport Access Road and the Dulles Toll Road and manages construction of the Silver Line project, a 23-mile extension of the Washington region’s Metrorail system into Loudoun County, Va. No tax dollars are used to operate the toll road, which is funded by toll revenues, or the airports, which are funded through aircraft landing fees, rents and revenues from concessions. The Silver Line construction is funded by a combination of toll-road revenues, airport contributions and federal, state and local government appropriations. The Airports Authority is led by a 17-member board of directors appointed by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States.