DC police investigating officers who confiscated guns devoid of building arrests

Cami Mondeaux

October 01, 03:35 PM Oct 01, 03:35 PM

Seven police officers with the Metropolitan Law enforcement Department in Washington, D.C., are less than investigation after it was found they experienced confiscated quite a few firearms without having creating arrests, Chief Robert Contee announced Friday.

The seven officers, who are each and every assigned to a unique law enforcement device that focuses on suppressing violent criminal offense in the metropolis, have been put on administrative go away or desk duty even though the agency conducts the investigations. Associates of the police device who are not underneath investigation have been reassigned to other teams inside the division, in accordance to MPD officials.

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"In these cases, the suspect was not arrested, and the suspect should’ve been arrested," Contee reported Friday. "The firearm was taken and put into evidence. Having said that, the suspect was permitted to go absolutely free, and which is just not the way that we perform business in the Metropolitan Law enforcement Section."

Officers opened an investigation into the misconduct soon after it was uncovered on Sept. 11 that two officers had confiscated an unlawful firearm but did not arrest the suspect, Contee explained. The incident was found as officers reviewed human body digital camera footage for the duration of a independent investigation.

The firearm was properly positioned into proof, but the officers submitted a written report of the incident that was inconsistent with the footage, according to Contee. This prompted the company to investigate the make any difference further more, locating that at the very least 5 other users of the law enforcement unit experienced carried out “similar functions of misconduct,” he stated.

“It’s not a mystery in which the guns are. The mystery is why the individuals weren’t arrested,” Contee claimed.

Investigators have notified the U.S. lawyer general’s workplace to figure out whether or not the misconduct is extra common, in accordance to the police main.

The investigation comes as the district's law enforcement have been less than amplified tension to remove guns from the streets amid increasing crime rates in the district. The MPD routinely reports how several illegal guns it has confiscated on its social media accounts, with the company touting 2,000 seizures of illegal guns so significantly this 12 months.

“While we strain the worth of keeping offenders accountable for their actions, we have an obligation to hold our members to a substantial normal for all that they do,” Contee explained. “The expectation of our officers is they make arrests when they have probable result in to make an arrest.”