WASHINGTON — D.C.s police union thinks multiyear vacancies on a board overseeing police hiring and training are endangering residents, and The Washington Examiner has learned that the organization will sue the District on Thursday in a bid to revive the panel.
The Fraternal Order of Police affiliate that represents Metropolitan Police Department officers will ask a court to force Mayor Vincent Gray to make appointments to the Police Officer Standards and Training Board, which D.C. law requires to meet at least twice a year but, according to a mayoral aide, hasnt met since June 2007.
There's a reason the statute exists, union leader Kris Baumann told The Examiner. That board is there to provide oversight, to make sure the department is meeting certain criteria for training, recruiting and professionalism.
In its lawsuit, the union will argue that without a board in place and operational, it hasnt fulfilled its duties as required by D.C. law, which include creating hiring standards and setting criteria for new and continuing officer training.
That, Baumann said, is a threat to public safety especially as officer attrition rates have remained high. Department and union statistics show that about 20 officers have left the force each month during fiscal 2012.
I dont want to use the word panic, but were close, Baumann said of the effect of lower staffing levels. Were already at a level of officers that has been said is unsafe for this city.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier has said in the past that that staffing threshold is approximately 3,800 officers.
With more officers leaving, Baumann hammered Gray for not following through on his reported May 2011 commitment to former D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr. to make board appointments.
Eight months later, the mayor has done nothing, said Baumann, who added that Grays ambivalence means he isnt taking public safety seriously.
Doxie McCoy, Grays spokeswoman, said Grays administration is working to revive the board.
It has been vacant since June 2007, long before Mayor Gray was in office, McCoy said. The Office of Boards and Commissions has reached out to representatives that would sit on the board, and were working to get it reconstituted.
Baumann also said that Lanier, through her silence on the issue, has been complicit in allowing the board to go quiet.
Lanier does not want to allow the board to be active because it performs an oversight function, he said.
In an email to The Examiner, though, Lanier said she wasnt the obstacle to a functioning POST board. You would think the FOP would know that I dont have the authority to appoint anyone to the board, Lanier wrote.