Last week police in the District of Columbia overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in their boss, Chief Cathy Lanier, but Lanier seems completely unconcerned with the vote.
“I am not interested in responding to or commenting on the anonymous online survey conducted by the Fraternal Order of Police. But I will defend the work of the members of this agency,” Lanier said in a statement.
Union members were upset with recent changes Lanier made to tactics used by narcotics officers, saying the changes led to the increase in violence the city is currently experiencing.
In June, Lanier announced that she would disband vice units in the city, in favor of a centralized narcotics division called the “Criminal Interdiction Unit.” Lanier said the tactics used by the vice units were outdated and focused too heavily on the low-level drug users, though the police union has said the units were important to building sources on the ground to help collect information about higher level players in the drug trade.
The DC Police Union wants to get vice squads back on the streets to combat a recent rash of violent crime in the city, but says political correctness at the top ranks is making that impossible.
The vote conducted over the weekend saw more than 1,000 police officers voting “no confidence” in Chief Lanier’s ability to manage the police force.
In a statement released by the union’s executive committee on their website, the union says it has become “increasingly frustrated” with what it calls “gimmicky tactics” implemented by Lanier and says all the ideas put forth by the union have been shot down in favor of political correctness.
According to the union poll, which was conducted by independent agency, more than 97 percent of the police officers who responded had “no confidence” in Lanier’s leadership.
Lanier, though, defended her enforcement strategies, citing an “all hands on deck” initiative launched over the weekend that she said took 34 illegal guns off of D.C. streets.
“According to our morning report today, MPD took 34 illegal guns off the streets of Washington, DC, this weekend alone and reduced violent crime by 39% compared to the same weekend last year,”Lanier said.
The all hands on deck initiative put every available officer on the street for the entire weekend.
She went on to reiterate her stance that police officers only conducted the “no confidence” vote because they were mad she made them work on the weekend.
“I am keenly aware of the inconvenience schedule changes cause our members and their families, and sincerely appreciate, that in spite of this inconvenience, they continue to work hard to take violent offenders off our streets to protect the citizens of the District of Columbia,” she said.
Gregg Pemberton, a union spokesman, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the vote had nothing to do with the weekend work, but that the police had simply become fed up with the chief’s policy changes.
“Only a handful of officers have Saturday and Sunday off,” he said.
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