Two interesting stories today on the current state of the Metropolitan Police Department. The Washington Times reports that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier says she’s going to stick with her All Hands on Deck policing strategy, which periodically puts every officer on duty over the course of a weekend. There were five All Hands on Deck weekends in 2007, and Lanier said she would continue them until the department can hire more officers.

Lanier told the Times the department will grow from about 3,900 officers to 4,050 by the end of the fiscal 2008, in October, but will not reach 4,200 until October 2009 — the number the D.C. Council has recently set as the sworn strength for the MPD.

We recently wondered whether the increase in homicides in the District in 2007 would cause Lanier to alter her short-term policing strategy, but it appears that will not happen.

Over at the Examiner we read about the news that Assistant Chief Diane Groomes has ordered a review of basic arrest paperwork procedures after a report showed that federal prosecutors were forced to throw out one in five criminal cases brought by D.C. police in November. Groomes wants to determine whether shoddy police work was to blame for those quick dismissals.

One of the five All Hands on Deck weekends occurred in November, the weekend of Nov. 3-4, which netted 481 arrests, mostly for traffic violations, drug offenses and disorderly conduct. During the same weekend in 2006, the MPD made 385 arrests.

Photo by sintixerr