Support the Officers on the Street

Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey's latest declaration of a "crime emergency" in the District implies that a temporary or unexpected situation has arisen when in fact our city's crime problem is nothing new. What is occurring is that after eight years, the policies of this police administration are coming to fruition.

Instead of fighting crime aggressively in the most violent communities, the Metropolitan Police Department has focused its resources on public relations and in neighborhoods where political influence and money have commanded attention. As a result, this administration has gathered praise from the community and media while violent crime has continued unchecked in the city's poorest neighborhoods.

The department has failed to develop strategies for reducing crime and encouraging aggressive, effective policing but instead has focused its efforts on instituting a disciplinary system that actually discourages proactive policing. Indeed, the department has more people assigned to investigate its own officers than it does to investigate homicides. With officers forced to second-guess every decision they make, it should come as no surprise that violent crime has spread across the city.

The excessive discipline of officers is not merely a complaint of the rank and file, but rather a problem that directly impacts the effectiveness of officers on the street. Every day, officers are disciplined, suspended and terminated for minor infractions and baseless charges. For instance, two officers remain suspended because they returned fire after being ambushed by armed robbers, despite later being cleared by department investigators. Officers have a legitimate fear of losing their jobs whenever they make the split-second decisions that police work requires. Consequently, police officers are leaving the department for other agencies at such a startling rate the department will not even disclose the numbers.

If we want to get serious about fighting crime and protecting D.C. residents, we need to empower the individual police officer. It is time that we reward proactive, aggressive policing. We need to stop disciplining officers for nonsensical reasons, and we need to stop giving more deference to criminals than cops.

Police officers must know that when they make tough calls and put their lives on the line to fight crime, our city and citizens will support them. As for Chief Ramsey, instead of creating policies that hinder police work and damage morale, he needs to develop active long-term strategies for reducing crime and strengthening the department, rather than simply declaring a "crime emergency" each summer.

-- Kristopher Baumann

Washington

is chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Metropolitan Police Department Labor Committee.