August 9, 2007
Heat on MPD Coming From More than Just the Weather
It's not exactly a banner day for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The Examiner takes the chief to task a bit this morning for her latest "All Hands on Deck" initiative: four people were shot in the course of an hour during the second night of the effort, which also coincided with National Night Out events, and the force is seriously short handed today as well as Wednesday and Friday to avoid spending millions on overtime. Fewer than half the number of officers needed to patrol some neighborhoods are available to work the second half of this week. Some officers are estimating the entire police force is down by about a third right now.
And then there's that canceled move to a new headquarters in Southeast we mentioned briefly earlier. The story goes like this: Back in December, before Lanier was on the job, the city signed a 20-year lease for the site, a 400,000 square foot building at 225 Virginia Ave. SE. But Lanier and other city officials had a six-month grace period to change their minds before paying any rent. After, we can only presume, examining their options during that time, the D.C. Council went ahead and approved $6.5 million in April so that Chief Lanier and about 200 officers could make the move in 2009, with over 1,100 officers eventually scheduled to be transferred to the new facility. The city made the first $542,000 payment in July.
Then suddenly yesterday, everything went a little nutty. The DC Office of Property Management put out a cryptic press release saying the move had been canceled, with the following statement from Director Lars Etzkorn:
“We have found this deal to be too expensive for the District,” Etzkorn said. “Fortunately we realized before it was too late that forcing three dissimilar police functions in this building (a local police station and its cell-block, a warehouse for secure evidence storage along with regular office space) is not cost effective. In addition, we have found the facility to be inconsistent with the adjacent neighborhood. OPM is now studying the future of the building.”Are we to believe that Etzkorn has a different definition of "too late" than the rest of us? The city has already spent $542,000 on the building, and is signed on for a 20-year lease that presumably would also be costly to break. The notion that we should all be relieved that OPM caught this potential disaster in the nick of time is laughable. Where was this cost analysis in April, when the decision was made to go forward with the move? And what on Earth does it mean to suggest the facility would be "inconsistent with the adjacent neighborhood?"
Both Mayor Adrian Fenty and Chief Lanier, who vocally supported the move back in April, have some serious explaining to do. No doubt looking into this debacle will be high on the to-do list for the D.C. Council when they come back to work next month -- Phil Mendelson (D-At large) has already sent an angry letter to the Mayor. Just a few months ago, Fenty and Lanier were convinced that the new location wouldn't be too remote, and that the current police headquarters was rundown and insufficient to meet the future needs of the MPD. The details of what has changed since then, including what's in Etzkorn's report and what the MPD plans to do instead, will surely be a source of contention between the Council and the Mayor this fall.
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I should note, the terms of the 20-year lease do allow the District to sublease the building.
Maybe the fact that OPM is "studying the future of the building" means that DC is not breaking the lease but is rather going to transfer another agency/department there, which would mean the 500k wasn't necessarily completely wasted.
I definitely want to get to the bottom of this, but I was against the move in the first place, and I can't say I'm disapointed that they changed their mind.
This all hands on deck thing is pretty ridiculous and ineffective. During the one a few Fridays ago (during which a few people were also shot), my friend and his neighbor were arrested for having open beers on their own front porches. Sorry, but I'd really rather not waste my tax dollars on that sort of thing. It's clearly just a way to up # of arrests in order to try to justify the immense waste of money on overtime.
Considering that office and condo construction in the neighborhood is going gangbusters, it might actually make more sense to sublease, assuming there are takers. For all I know, the building is so riddled with asbestos, cleanup would be cost prohibitive.
Either way, Etzkorn needs to cough up some numbers to backup his statements because obviously someone screwed up along the approval path. I can, even now, hear the muffled roar of the closing ranks, the bureaucratic asscoverings, and the audit trails being shredded.
First impression for me was another black eye for DC government.
Both Fenty and Lanier will blame this on their predecessors and refuse to take responsibility. Why did the DC OPM wait so long to analyze the figures? Luckily there will be a hefty 10% increase in property taxes next year for most long-time DC homeowners that will makeup for the money wasted.
As for all hands on deck for 2 days, we need MORE hands on deck all the time.
I am concerned that Fenty and his staff’s youth and inexperience will cost the city lots of money over the next 3 years.
It's illegal to have a beer on your front porch? Are you kidding me?
Guest #7: It's illegal to have an "open container" in a public area. In theory, your own front porch is your private property if you live in a house, and thus you shouldn't be subject to arrest. However, if officers believe they see a crime (e.g. they suspect the people drinking on the porch are underage, which is illegal whether on public or private property), they may come onto the porch and check. BUT if they own or rent the house and are over 21, they shouldn't have been arrested.
There was a to-do a some years back about the idiocy of "cracking down" on people with beer or wine on their own porches. Saner heads eventually prevailed, but apparently memories are short. There's some discussion here.
#7 Asked: "It's illegal to have a beer on your front porch? Are you kidding me?"
#8 Replied "It's illegal to have an "open container" in a public area. In theory, your own front porch is your private property if you live in a house, and thus you shouldn't be subject to arrest. However, if officers believe they see a crime (e.g. they suspect the people drinking on the porch are underage, which is illegal whether on public or private property), they may come onto the porch and check. BUT if they own or rent the house and are over 21, they shouldn't have been arrested."
It's more complex than that. Google "Chardonnay Lady" + Dupont.
The law was changed in 1999. It is NOT illegal to drink on your front porch (assuming you can drink legally).
I believe that the subtle point here is where "your own" begins. For example, in my condo building, the actual line between city and condo owner's (as a whole) is either inside or right at the surface of the outside of the building. Everything else from there to the curb is owned by the city, but subject to an easement for our use. Thus a window box hanging outside would be in "public" space, as is all of the flowers/landscaping out front.
My very non-lawyer guess would be that, until the law was amended in 1999, the front porches of many homes in downtown-ish DC (for example row houses) would be considered public property for the open container law. Clearly it should have been overlooked, but it was the law.
I expect the line between city and owner is much different for the traditional Ward and June Cleaver single family dwellings that you find as you get farther from the center of the city. In those cases, the front porch is clearly on private property.
The bottom line is that the police can haul you off to jail regardless of whether they can make charges stick. For the record, my friend's neighbor is middle-aged or older - he's lived in the house for about 30 years, so you do the math on that one. The neighbor was being arrested. My friend went outside to see what the commotion was about with an open beer in his hand. He was immediately handcuffed. Stupid.
#12 has it exactly right.
So let's recap. You face arrest if you have a beer on your front stoop. But I can point to probably a dozen streetcorners just in my own neighborhood that have people OBVIOUSLY dealing drugs on the corner. And apparently that's ok, since I rarely if ever see the police actually doing anything about it.
MPD is a joke, folks. If DC wants to join the ranks of other world class cities we must get a police force that proactively fights crime,not just shows up later to put up the crime tape.
That means getting out of your freaking cruisers already. Yes, I know it's icky, actually having to talk to those smelly, sweaty people that actually pay the taxes that pay your salary. It sucks to have to actually get to know the good and the bad in a neighborhood. But that's what need to be demanding.
But I should point out that some DC cops are just as frustrated as us residents are. Especially young cops, coming in thinking they will make a difference. Instead they face the reality that a simple arrest will mean five hours of paperwork, that the DC judge will probably just release the person, and they'll be doing the exact same thing the next day. They soon learn that the DC way is to simply sleepwalk through your shift, collect your pay, and go home (preferably outside of actual DC city limits).
It's a shame, really, as some really do try hard.