Cathy Lynn Lanier (born July 22, 1967) is a former chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPDC).

Lanier was appointed by Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty in January 2007, replacing outgoing police chief Charles H. Ramsey.

[2] On August 16, 2016, it was announced that Lanier had accepted a position as the senior vice president of security with the National Football League.

She has both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in management from Johns Hopkins University and holds a Master of Arts in national security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California;[citation needed] her thesis was Preventing Terror Attacks in the Homeland: A New Mission for State and Local Police.

[7] Lanier was criticized in July 2009 after claiming that motorists who used GPS navigation and smartphones to avoid traffic cameras were employing a "cowardly tactic".