Washington, D.C., police chief loses confidence vote as homicides mount
Police union hopes poll will send message to mayor and chief that 'something needs to change'
Tension between Washington, D.C.'s police union and the city's police chief mounted Monday morning with the release of an an internal poll showing a majority of officers who voted don't have confidence in Chief Cathy Lanier to keep the city safe.
The survey of Metropolitan Police officers was held over the weekend, just as the U.S. capital's murder tally hit 105 — equalling the number of homicides for all of 2014 — and while the department carried out an "all hands on deck" initiative to combat the city's violent summer. Extra officers were put on patrol all over the city for a 48-hour period.
Despite all available officers being on the job, it was still a violent weekend, with two homicides, multiple shootings, stabbings and armed robberies.
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The union's chairman, Delroy Burton, said in an interview on Fox 5's morning show that "all hands on deck" is ineffective, and it creates a staffing vacuum in the middle of the week because of scheduling extra officers to work on weekends.
Using it as a strategy to stop the recent spike in violent crime is just one of many points of contention between the union and Lanier. Frustration has been mounting for months, especially since the chief disbanded local vice units.
The union said in a news release that it wanted to quantify its frustration with the survey.
The internal, online survey conducted by an independent firm asked approximately 3,600 union members whether they have confidence that Lanier is able to properly manage the department's resources and keep citizens safe. Of the 1,150 members who responded, 97.5 per cent said No.
When asked about voter turnout, Burton said he heard from some officers that they were worried about the chief finding out how they voted, so they didn't want to cast their ballot. That concern "speaks volumes about what's going on and the toxic environment," he said during the Fox 5 interview.
Survey a symbolic gesture
The union said the non-confidence vote is a symbolic gesture that demonstrates a desire for a new direction in policing in Washington.
Burton said it sends a message to Lanier that "something has to change" and to Mayor Muriel Bowser that she "needs to do some thinking" about the police chief.
However, Bowser isn't taking Burton's advice. She issued a statement Monday morning giving her full support to Lanier, who has led the force since 2007.
"After 25 years of policing D.C. streets, deploying officers and strategies, and building a force of highly qualified officers and leaders — in the good times and the tough times, too — I have every confidence in Chief Lanier," the mayor said.
Bowser and Lanier have defended their respective efforts to reduce the escalating violence, which is a trend that is also playing out in other major American cities this summer. Bowser announced $15 million worth of initiatives last week that include funding for community services such as employment assistance, and for the police department, partly to put more officers in the hardest hit neighbourhoods.
Lanier said in a statement Monday that she wasn't interested in commenting on the union's poll, but that she would defend her force's work. She noted that 34 illegal guns were seized this past weekend, adding she appreciates the inconvenience that scheduling changes during "all hands on deck" causes officers and their families.
"As the Chief of Police, I will continue to make the tough decisions that need to be made to make Washington, D.C. the safest city in America," Lanier wrote.
A combination of factors is behind the increased violence, according to the mayor and chief, including more synthetic drug use, more illegal guns circulating, and repeat offenders causing trouble.
The union is calling on Lanier to reinstate the local vice units that she disbanded in favour of centralizing the officers under one unit to tackle broader-scale drug crimes. The union argues the local vice officers were invaluable in gathering street-level intelligence and in enforcement, with those lost resources contributing to this summer's violence.
Chief questions timing of vote
They are also unhappy with the decision to station officers at "fixed posts" instead of allowing them to move freely around their district. That tactic limits their ability to interact with the community and do proactive policing, the union says.
Their concerns have been dismissed and their ideas ignored, the union said in the news release that did not hold back in criticising the department's leaders.
"We've been told that the status quo is working and we've been forced into a corner of lacklustre, feckless, inefficient enforcement and been required to stand by and watch while the leaders of the department doubled-down on their stop-gap, gimmicky tactics," it said.
"We believe that the time for public relations policing and spin zone crime statistics should be over. Real common sense solutions based on research and evidence should be the focus of our government and our community."
A majority of D.C. residents still give Lanier a positive approval rating, according to research by the union that was also released Monday, but it says her support is slipping. It's at 60 per cent now compared with 84 per cent in 2011.
Lanier said in a local radio interview last week that the union doesn't speak for all officers, and she questioned the timing of the vote. She noted that elections for union positions are coming up and hinted that holding the vote on a weekend when some officers were being forced to work would sway the vote.