"DC's 911 System Is A Joke"

[awkx]

From http://www.volokh.com/posts/1202690921.shtml:

... a brief in DC v. Heller supplies the facts of the appalling mismanagement and institutional incompetence of DC's Metropolitan Police Department. Almost everyone who lives or works in the District of Columbia is well aware that the District's government performs very poorly compared to almost all other big-city governments in the United States. Nevertheless, the Buckeye brief is shocking.

The four core empirical subparts of the brief are titled:

• "The MPD Has A Significant Problem Hiring And Retaining Qualified Police Officers."
• "The MPD Has A Significant History Of Mismanagement."
• "The District's '911 System Is A Joke'."
• "The MPD Has A Significant History Of Corruption."

Every one of these points is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, relying almost entirely on reports in Washington newspapers.

[awkx]

Ordinary legal briefs are rather dry, but the ones submitted in this case tend to be exceptionally well-written and interesting. Here's the Summary from the Buckeye brief (http://www.gurapossessky.com/news/pa...undation.pdf):

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
I. The District of Columbia Metropolitan Police
Department has failed to provide adequate police
services to the District of Columbia’s3 citizens. The
District is consistently a national leader in various
crime categories while simultaneously demonstrating
inability to adapt or change under the crippling
bureaucracy endemic to the District. Compounding
this deadly combination of high crime and inflexibil-
ity are constant examples of corruption, incompetence
and outright misfeasance in the operation of the
department. To compound the problem, the MPD is
statutorily responsible for regulating their private
sector competition, the private security industry, a
duty executed poorly enough so as to embarrass an
industry focused on constantly improving its profes-
sionalism.
Unfortunately, this is not a mere phase or tempo-
rary problem for the District. Since the 30-plus year
old implementation of what amounts to a complete
ban on owning, carrying or using firearms for self-
defense,5 the MPD has cycled through new chiefs and
precinct commanders with depressing frequency. The
only constant within the department has been the
incompetence, corruption, cronyism and failure to
perform the most basic duty of a police department—
to protect and serve.
The jaded citizens of the District have essentially
given up on the police and the administration, resign-
ing themselves to living as victims—or as outlaws, for
those who choose to defend themselves despite the
D.C. Gun Ban. The unavoidable result of the D.C.
Gun Ban is that it is the victims, not the criminals,
who are disarmed and rendered helpless. Not only
are the police failing to protect district residents but
the District government is burdening proven private
sector solutions.

II. Compounding the impact of the failures of
the MPD are the numerous court cases which have
exonerated and granted immunity to the police for
their collective failure to adequately protect the
public they disarmed. Rather than holding the police
responsible for their failures, the courts have empow-
ered the police department’s incompetence, nonfea-
sance and misfeasance.
No matter the degree, police incompetence typi-
cally is not actionable; thus, there is no legal incen-
tive to rectify the incompetence. The MPD has been
sued several times over this incompetence. The fact
patterns in these cases leave people of ordinary
sensibilities outraged; outrage magnified by the
failure of the courts to impose any liability for the
misfeasance.
These court decisions serve to empower the in-
competence rather than remediate the department’s
shortcomings. The essence of the court decisions is
that the police must assume a special relationship or
duty to a citizen, or a police officer must cross over
the line into overt misconduct towards a citizen, prior
to liability existing. Under this legal environment,
the MPD’s incentive is to remain negligent and
incompetent, thus evading liability for even gross
negligence, rather than venture forth with a sense of
mission and responsibility for their failures with the
attendant liability for failing to protect the citizenry.

...

[reels18]

DC's police force can only get better, now that their chief is residing in Philly as the top cop.

[DaveM55]

I read somewhere that DC Metro police are NOT authorised to carry off duty. Only to and from work and during a shift. Anyone confirm or deny that?

[sgh]

DC's police force can only get better, now that their chief is residing in Philly as the top cop.

Those Phila mayors sure know how to get that cream that rises to the top!

[ExCopInPhilly]

D.C. police officers can get disciplined for being in the city, on or off duty WITHOUT their weapon. It is mandatory that they carry anytime they are in the city.

[DaveM55]

D.C. police officers can get disciplined for being in the city, on or off duty WITHOUT their weapon. It is mandatory that they carry anytime they are in the city.

Thanks, I was hoping it was wrong info.