D.C. police officers need a refresher on when it's legal to enter a home without a warrant, according to a report issued Wednesday by the city's Police Complaints Board.
Five months after the District opened a $220 million, state-of-the-art forensics laboratory hailed as an experimental transition to independent forensics testing, the crime-scene investigation unit has unraveled as a result of dysfunction and bureaucratic gridlock, according to the Fraternal Order of Police and veteran officers who process crime scenes.
Glitches in the Metropolitan Police Department's new data-management system are preventing officials from producing a key comprehensive crime report that tells authorities whether the crime rate is getting better or worse in D.C. neighborhoods and across the city.
The D.C. Court of Appeals has dismissed a long-running case brought by D.C. police officers who claimed they were disciplined for blowing the whistle on what they said was an improper department contract.
An arbitrator's ruling that D.C. Fire Chief Kenneth B. Ellerbe unlawfully retaliated against the president of the city firefighters union is "sobering" and "not good for the department," D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said Wednesday.
A veteran Metropolitan Police sergeant says higher-ups at the department and the city council chairman are protecting a manager accused of misusing department funds, failing to rescind defective speed-camera citations and improperly voiding legitimate tickets.
D.C. police officers patrolled city streets in force over the weekend as part of Chief Cathy L. Lanier's signature All Hands on Deck crime-fighting initiative, but the increased police presence appeared to do little to prevent an unusually high number of robberies.
A Metropolitan Police Department officer stabbed five years ago is being laid to rest Friday, as officials await the results of an autopsy to determine whether his death is directly related to the earlier injury and should be classified a homicide.
The District's police and fire unions are asking the city's inspector general to investigate the destruction of personnel files found burning inside trash bins and a car at the D.C. fire training academy.
