DALE Sutherland spent his career rooting out vicious drug dealers – now he’s helping them see the light.
The former Washington DC narcotics cop was an undercover officer for 26 years who cozied up to some of the country’s most notorious criminals.
He valiantly helped stop tons of Class A’s and guns flood onto the streets during the city’s blood-soaked crack wars of the late 80’s and early 90’s, brutally witnessing firsthand the pain and devastation caused by America’s escalating drug problem.
“I was working in the most violent areas with some of the most dangerous people,” he told The U.S Sun.
“They tried to kill me seven times. But I’m still here.”
Sutherland found his calling on the mean streets, but now he’s found Jesus– and he’s determined to spread the word in his new life as a pastor.
He has established a nonprofit, community project called Code 3 which helps underprivileged kids in the area and gives him a platform to continue his pastoral duties which began towards the end of his cop career.
His time working undercover trying to root out crack dealers and violent criminals, however, set the stall for everything.
Sutherland would spend months associating himself with drug gangs, many of whom operated within a stone throw of The Capitol and the White House.
“After six months, we would rush in and arrest 100 people,” he recalled of a time he described as being like living in a real-life version of The Wire, the legendary HBO show which depicted life on the drug infested streets of Baltimore.
Time after time, Sutherland would attempt to get his targets to confess and carry out a long list of serious crimes. “One guy actually proposed shooting a man, cutting his head off and bringing it to me. He didn’t do it, but he was ready to.”
Dangerous missions to crack dens saw Sutherland dice with death every time as some dealers, in a move to try and root out cops in disguise, would demand any customer to puff on a pipe upon purchase.
Sutherland would always make an excuse, moan about how his “wife was in the car and she needed to be driven home first.”
“Once I was inside these apartments full of drug users, dangerous dogs and dealers, I was on my own,” he said. “Communication is lost. It was scary.”
It was a white-knuckle existence with much of the violence and mayhem happening close to some of the country’s most popular – and historic – landmarks.
“On one case which took place just four blocks from The Capitol, I bought more guns and drugs than I had ever bought in my career,” he revealed.
Those same areas today, although gentrified, are now a haven for carjackers and street robbers as DC experiences another worrying crime surge which is affecting everyone – an off-duty FBI agent was attacked and had his vehicle stolen last month although, as Sutherland points out, “there is more crime against poor people than there are against rich people in the United States.”
The self-styled Undercover Pastor knows his career path has taken one hell of a drastic twist – on his website, Sutherland greets any visitors to the page with the banner: Buying cocaine and preaching Jesus. A weird combo.
He’s not wrong, but Sutherland is deadly serious about his mission to clean up the streets and help the wrongdoers bring some spirituality into their messed-up lives.
Sutherland retired from his dangerous, undercover life in 2013 and admits there was a time where his two careers began to melt into one.
“Sometimes I would be at the police department, and I would be nearing an undercover deal, and I’d get a call from a troubled parent wanting counseling,” he said.
“And then I would be at church and a drug dealer from New York was on the phone offering me two kilos of cocaine. The two worlds were constantly mixing.”
Now, however, he can concentrate fully on being a pastor while running Code 3, which was founded in 2015, and aims to “foster mutual trust and collaboration among police departments and the communities they serve.”
Sutherland uses his harrowing experiences on the street to try and help the kids of tomorrow but knows with violence on the rise and poverty continuing to push people into drug dealing and gang life, the battle is constant and never-ending.
“What I could do as a policeman was only exterior, only control the outside of the body,” he added.
“I could put you in jail. I could put you in handcuffs. I could physically stop you from something. But what I couldn’t do was change how you think, how you feel.
“Now I try to set people free – just like Christ.”
