A group of high ranking Washington, D.C., police officers, including the current chief, shielded 21 officers from termination for criminal misconduct, according to an investigation conducted by Reveal and WAMU/DCist.
Reveal's report is based on internal documents obtained from a ransomware attack that, according to The Associated Press, targeted D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in April.
Per those documents, between 2009 and 2019, the MPD's Disciplinary Review Division sought termination for at least 24 officers accused of criminal misconduct. In all but three of those cases, an Adverse Action Panel made up of three high-ranking officers made sure the accused kept their jobs. One member of that panel, Robert J. Contee, has served as chief of the MPD since the beginning of 2021.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Reveal's report claims that the documents describe how Officer Ronald Faunteroy, a 20-year veteran of the force according to OpenPayrolls.com, solicited sex from a pair of D.C. prostitutes, threatened them with his department-issue Glock, and then lied about it to the internal affairs agent who questioned him. Eventually, the documents say, Faunteroy admitted to all of the allegations, but instead of being fired, he was merely demoted. The Adverse Action Panel had saved his job. He has since been promoted back to his original position.
The report also claims that, of seven police officers slated for termination due to domestic abuse, the panel kept six of them from being fired.
According to Reveal, neither Contee nor the MPD responded to requests for comment.
-
France makes first arrests in Louvre jewels heistSpeed Read Two suspects were arrested in connection with the daytime theft of royal jewels from the museum
-
Trump pardons crypto titan who enriched familySpeed Read Binance founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty in 2023 to enabling money laundering while CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange
-
Thieves nab French crown jewels from LouvreSpeed Read A gang of thieves stole 19th century royal jewels from the Paris museum’s Galerie d’Apollon
-
Arsonist who attacked Shapiro gets 25-50 yearsSpeed Read Cody Balmer broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and tried to burn it down
-
Man charged over LA’s deadly Palisades Firespeed read 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht has been arrested in connection with the fire that killed 12 people
-
4 dead in shooting, arson attack in Michigan churchSpeed Read A gunman drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church where he shot at congregants and then set the building on fire
-
2 kids killed in shooting at Catholic school massSpeed Read 17 others were wounded during a morning mass at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis
-
Australian woman found guilty of mushroom murdersspeed read Erin Patterson murdered three of her ex-husband's relatives by serving them toxic death cap mushrooms
