Tuesday, October 20, 2009

A robbery, the blog echo chamber, and police indifference

Back in August, the owners of the soon to be open Capital City Diner were robbed (with threat of a gun) near the intersection of Bladensburg Road and K Street, Northeast. The victims wrote about the incident on the Diner's blog. In their entry, they talk about the robbery itself, but most notably the police response. The August 24 blog post describes a Metropolitan Police Department detective attempting to talk the victims out of filing a police report:

Unfortunately, the detective tried repeatedly to convice Matt out of making a report.  He stated that a robbery hadn't occurred since Matt "gave up the money" willingly and the suspect didn't actually reach into Matt's pockets to steal the money (Matt handed him the robber money when asked for it).  Matt recounted that DC code doesn't require that a robbery physically touch someone, and that someone using fear (even without a weapon displayed) to take something is considered robbery.  Furthermore, the detective reminded Matt that he sticks out because Matt's a white guy in Trinidad and asked repeatedly if he really really wanted to be remembered by the criminal's associates if/when he's prosecuted.

This story spread like wildfire throughout the DC blogosphere. Prince of Petworth and DCist picked it up. People were outraged, and shared their own stories of police ineptitude and laziness. Some went as far as saying this was a concerted effort on the part of MPD to make crime statistics look rosier.

My first reaction was one of skepticism. Some of the details of the incident did not seem to add up, and I found it hard to believe that MPD would show such indifference to a crime being reported. I was also a bit bothered by how fast the news was being spread around, without any sort of corroboration or verification. My take was rooted in pessimism, that two guys walking home in a 'rough neighborhood' shouldn't be surprised if this happened. I was wrong.

In truth, there was a story here. It wasn't about the mugging. In the end, it doesn't so much matter if someone was 'asking for it' or not, and in this case they certainly were not. They are two men familiar with the neighborhood who know how to be street smart. What matters is that a crime was committed. The officer in question failed the public and failed their fellow officers by discouraging the filing of a police report.

No one will question that crime is a serious problem facing DC. While violent crime has been down in 2009, property crime has been up and teenagers are still dying in the streets. MPD has been plagued by internal disputes between management and officers, and Chief Lanier is in the hot seat about the All Hands on Deck measures.

If we are ever to see any meaningful reduction in crime, we have to start with an accurate baseline. Crimes need to be reported, and crimes need to be investigated. Even if this results in a less than stellar closure rate on robberies. In some cases it is unlikely that the suspects will be apprehended. However, that's not a good enough reason to try to intimidate a victim into not reporting a crime.

At first I was hesitant to place all of the blame on MPD in this instance. I didn't want to jump to that conclusion before any sort of investigation had been done, or reports filed. Following the incident, the Capital City Diner's blog was updated to note that MPD had begun an investigation into the conduct of the detective in question.

As is the case with the blogs, and the news media in general, this was a story that dropped off people's radar. Many have likely forgotten about the incident.

After my initial post I noted that I would follow up on this, if I was able to receive further information. Matt Ashburn from the Capital City Diner reached out to me to reiterate that he was not interested in blaming MPD as a whole, but more that he was concerned about the conduct in this specific instance.

I've since learned that MPD has concluded their investigation regarding the officer in question's conduct. The citizen complaint was regarded as 'sustained' by MPD, which means the complaint had merit and the officer has been dealt with as per department policies.

Matt wrote in to express his appreciation to the officers of the Fifth District for taking this complaint seriously, and expressed optimism about the future. Matt did the right thing by standing up for his rights as a citizen and a victim.

In order for the police department to receive the funding they deserve, and the management they need, they must be honest with their reporting. We, as citizens, absolutely must feel like we can turn to MPD when we have been victims of crime. There's no hope for a better future if that is not the case.

by Dave Stroup, filed under Crime, Trinidad at 7:00AM

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