Police Union Votes No Confidence in Chief Cathy Lanier

With the District’s homicide rate now hitting 105, last year’s total for the year, the DC Police Union held a confidential vote asking members whether they had confidence in D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier to manage the resources of the police department and keep residents safe — and 1,122 voted “no.” Only 28 voted “yes.”

At least 10 shootings occurred in the past week with two resulting in deaths, despite Lanier’s All Hands on Deck initiative in which all available officers are on the streets for 48 hours. One victim, 13-year-old Taije Chambliss, was wounded while walking home from the library at 6:45 p.m. when she was hit by a stray bullet during a drive-by shooting near Eastern Market in Southwest D.C.

According to union sources, the lack of information provided by informants, which the union says are a result of Lanier’s policies moving all of D.C.’s drug and vice investigations into a single centralized narcotics unit and eliminating plain-clothes vice officers, as the root of the surge in crime. Resignations by disgruntled officers, along with retirements, have also created staff shortages that add to the force’s inability to control gun violence.

Mayor Muriel Bowser continues to back Lanier. “After 25 years of policing these streets, deploying officers and strategies, building a force of highly qualified officers and police leaders, in the good times and the tough times, too, I have every confidence in Chief Lanier,” she said in a statement released by her office.