B4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020
BY PETER HERMANNThe D.C. police department has
largely recovered from a surge of
retirements a few years ago that
reduced the size of the force to
levels that officials at the time
said were becoming dangerously
low.
But the department continues
to struggle with departures — n ot
from retirements, but from resig-
nations.
While the number of officers
retiring each year has generally
been on the decline, the number
of resignations has remained
steady or increased each year
since 2015. It hit a recent high
with 143 in 2019.
Police Chief Peter Newsham,
speaking at a D.C. Council com-
mittee hearing this month, attrib-
uted the increased resignations in
part to a force that is becoming
younger.
He said officers are more likely
to leave in their first five years,
some to join federal law enforce-
ment agencies or other depart-
ments offering more money.
Newsham also said some officers
quickly discover “that this is not
the career for them.”
Warning signs about police
strength levels in the District
were sounded in 2015, when the
number of officers dropped to
3,786. Many had joined the force
during a hiring binge in the late
1980s and early 1990s and were
eligible to retire about the same
time.
It appears that “retirement
bubble” h as now eased; by the end
of 2018, the force grew to 3,855. As
of early March, the department
had 3,805 officers. D.C. Mayor
Muriel E. Bowser (D) has set a
goal of 4,000 officers by 2023.
D.C. police continue to hire,
offering 12 academy classes each
year with roughly two dozen re-
cruits in each session. At the
council hearing, Newsham men-
tioned the possibility of raising
starting pay, nearly $66,000 for
an officer just hitting the streets,
to keep up with a competitive job
market.
The department offers several
incentives to convince officers to
stay — including a tuition loan
program and a housing assis-
tance program for officers start-
ing their careers — during a time
when Newsham said “they are
most likely to resign.”
The chief said these and other
initiatives, including a cadet pro-
gram aimed at drawing young
people who live in the District
into careers with the department,are crucial to meeting the depart-
ment’s goals.
“I cannot overemphasize the
importance of continued funding
for these programs, considering
the increased competition for a
limited pool of applicants in the
region, and the historically low
unemployment rate,” Newsham
said at the council hearing.
One program that the chief is
fighting to keep allows retired
senior officers to return for up to
five years a nd collect a salary in
addition to their pension. It ex-
pires in October, along with the
D.C. police contract.
The senior officer program tar-geted sergeants and detectives
and was described in 2017 as a
“stopgap measure” to fill the
ranks.
R etired officers who join the
program before the expiration
date can stay until their five years
are up. Unless the council contin-
ues the initiative, no retirees can
be hired after October, and the
number of participants, now 123,
would dwindle each year starting
in 2021, until the last group
r eaches the end of its five-year
term.
C ouncil member Charles Allen
(D-Ward 6), who chairs the public
safety committee, told Newshamduring the hearing that the “idea
behind the program” was to
“solve the retirement bubble.” He
agreed that it “had the added
benefit of adding quality and ex-
perience in terms of leadership,”
but he warned the “stopgap is
becoming more and more perma-
nent.”
Allen said there would be fur-
ther discussion during upcoming
budget sessions.
Newsham said that experi-
enced officers are needed as the
department grows younger a nd
that the “senior police program is
not just about numbers and in-
creasing the size of the force.” Hedescribed the jobs of sergeants
and detectives as “positions of
mentorship,” and he said he
wants to continue the program
“for as long as we possibly can.”
Stephen Bigelow Jr., the chair-
man of the police union, said his
group has reservations about con-
tinuing the program and believes
the returning officers occupy
slots that otherwise would go to
officers seeking promotion. “It
hurts the upward mobility for our
officers,” he said.
Bigelow said he backs the pro-
gram in general but doesn’t sup-
port “bringing back unlimited
numbers” of retired officers.
The union chairman attributed
the high number of resignations
to officers seeking higher pay at
other police agencies and to in-
creased scrutiny on police across
the country from advocacy
groups, politicians and the me-
dia.
“It’s a very tough time to be a
police officer,” Bigelow said, de-
scribing officers as “free agents”
who jump from department to
department seeking better pay
and work environments. He said
young officers “are, I believe, be-
ing held to unrealistic standards
of perfection,” and “people don’t
want to do it anymore.”
As a result, Bigelow said, police
departments around the country
are fighting for recruits. He said
that while the District pays start-
ing officers more than some sur-
rounding local jurisdictions, the
city falls behind agencies in other
large cities.
During negotiations for a new
police contract later this year,
salaries will be compared with
large cities across the country,
instead of being limited to agen-
cies in the D.C. region, as they had
been in the past.
Bigelow said the District needs
to meet the mayor’s goal of grow-
ing to 4,000 officers, given the
city’s population increase and
large-scale events and protests
that can require hundreds of offi-
cers to staff.
“We don’t have an option,” the
union chairman said. “We have so
many responsibilities, we can’t
have a skeleton force.”
[email protected]THE DISTRICT
O∞cials debate how to combat rise in police resignations
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
Crime scene tape is secured along 13th Street NW as police gather near the scene of a reported standoff Dec. 10. As of early March, the
D.C. police department had 3 ,8 05 officers, after 143 resigned in 2019. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has set a goal of 4,000 officers by 2023.Chief backs program that
rehires retired officers,
but union has concernsvisitation arrangement. But
Booth said because demand for
the video visitation has increased,
the wait for the terminals also is
longer. “The video systems are
being overflooded by family,
friends and attorneys,” Booth
said.
Both said the jail is providing
soap to the inmates, in addition to
soap, hand sanitizer and gloves to
the jail staffers. “Their safety is
our number one priority. We don’t
want to put anyone at risk,” he
said.
Deputy Mayor Kevin Donahue
said the District has made efforts
to reduce the jail’s population.
D.C. police have been given the
option of issuing citations, as op-
posed to making arrests, depend-
ing on the alleged crime. Both
federal and local prosecutors
have increased the number of
cases they have dismissed. And
new emergency legislation
passed by the D.C. Council allows
jail inmates to earn double credits
for taking various life classes of-
fered by the jail in an effort to
speed up their release. A jail
spokeswoman said 20 inmates
have been released as a result of
the restructuring.
Donahue also said defense at-
torneys have petitioned judges in
D.C. Superior Court for emergen-
cy release for their clients based
on the pandemic. It is unclear
whether those efforts have been
successful.
Donahue said the District’s
cellblock — a n area under the D.C.
police headquarters where new
arrestees are housed before their
initial hearing — has seen a
50 percent reduction in the num-
ber of arrestees from a month ago.
He said that reduction is due to a
reduced number of arrests by po-
lice.
The inmate who tested positive
for the coronavirus was housed at
the jail’s Correctional Treatment
Facility, which is located in an
adjacent building to the central
detention facility, both of which
are located in the 1900 block of
D Street SE. CTF, a s the unit is also
nicknamed, is a medium-security
facility, a step down in security
from the central detention facili-
ty. While some male inmates are
housed there, CTF is the only unit
housing female inmates.
The 36 inmates who have been
quarantined were in the Correc-
tional Treatment Facility.
[email protected]BY KEITH L. ALEXANDERThe D.C. jail has quarantined
36 inmates officials think may
have come into contact with a
20-year-old male inmate who
te sted positive for the novel coro-
navirus late Wednesday, jail offi-
cials said.
Quincy L. B ooth, director of the
Department of Corrections, said
in an interview Thursday that
officials were continuing tracking
to determine whether a dditional
inmates, jail staff or other individ-
uals might also have come in
contact with the inmate.
Late Wednesday, jail officials
confirmed that the 20-year-old
man is the first coronavirus-posi-
tive inmate out of 1,700 prisoners.
The inmate is now being treated
at the jail’s infirmary and is instable condition, Booth said.
Jail officials say four inmates
have been tested for the virus:
Two had negative results,
Wednesday’s disclosure was the
first positive, and results are
pending for a fourth inmate.
Booth said the inmate com-
plained of being sick earlier this
week. At that point, he was placed
in isolation. On Wednesday, the
jail’s m edical team discovered the
inmate had a fever. They g ave him
a coronavirus test and were able
to get the results accelerated. By
Wednesday evening, the test re-
turned positive. Just before mid-
night, jail officials began alerting
staff and city officials.
Booth said the inmate had not
been to court since Jan. 27. Booth
also said the inmate’s attorney
was notified. The inmate has not
been taken to the U.S. attorney’s
office since being jailed, Booth
said.
Booth said jail officials are try-
ing to determine where and how
the inmate came in contact with
the virus. A jail spokeswoman
said the inmate has been jailedsince July 29. Booth declined to
identify the charge for which the
inmate was arrested.
In the District and across the
country, the pandemic has
prompted defense attorneys and
advocates to push for the release
of inmates, particularly those
who are nonviolent, elderly or
have compromised immune sys-
tems.
Booth said the jail has stepped
up measures to screen inmates
for the virus, including asking
questions of new inmates to de-
termine whether they have trav-
eled out of the country or been
around anyone who might have
had the virus. The jail has also
increased its cleaning and disin-
fecting and has limited visitors.
“We are doing enhanced
screenings, asking a series of
questions, taking temperatures
and seeing if you have any flu-like
symptoms,” Booth said. Such
measures are also being applied
to jail employees and visiting at-
torneys.
Attorneys are also being en-
couraged to use the jail’s videoTHE DISTRICT36 inmates quarantined after first covid-19 case
Jail officials unsure how
male inmate, last in court
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