Monday, December 18, 2006

Dupont Public Safety/PSA 306 Meeting Reminder

Reminder:

 

Dupont Public Safety Meeting/PSA 306 is Tuesday December 19th at 7pm at the 3rd District Metropolitan Police Dept Headquarters at 1620 V Street. (Held on 3rd Tuesdays for Dupont and Kalorama-Sheridan issues.) Our community depends on good communications to and from our police. This is a roundtable meeting where we problem-solve. Bring an issue – no matter how minor. Or email me or our lieutenants items for discussion.

 

 

Rob Halligan

 

 

Feel free to forward and to have associates ask to get on this list. Please advise if you’d like to be dropped from this list.

 

Friday, December 1, 2006

Public Safety Lookout and Request for Action

1) Last week’s City Paper well-summarized how I feel about the apparent inability of our justice system to effectively function for repeat minor offenses. There have been 26 cases against Nathan Johnson (mostly for breaking into cars around Dupont) in the past 6 years. I’ve personally witnessed him breaking into a car and got him arrested for it. He could be responsible for half the car break ins in the neighborhood. How the US Attorney and our judges have allowed this to continue is beyond me. The US Attorney’s Community Prosecutor liaison wants us to send Community Impact Statements to her, Marilyn Morey (Marilyn.Morey@usdoj.gov), in the next few days. Those statements will get to the judge for Johnson’s upcoming sentencing.

 

Dupont Forum Members (who get the emails in digest form) can get the file attached Community Impact form file at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DupontForum/files/. For others, the form is attached.

 

What we really need is to get the legislature to pass law making it a felony to break into a car and to ratchet up the sentencing so that someone convicted of breaking into cars numerous times goes to jail for a long, long time. Please write CM Phil Mendelson (PMendelson@dccouncil.us), the Chair of the Judiciary Committee asking for that new law.

 

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?state=new&id=268&navCenterTop

 

 

2) These incidents were a bit out of our area but close enough warrant attention:

 

November 29, 2006
SEXUAL ASSAULT SUSPECT (S) SOUGHT
The Metropolitan Police Department is seeking the public's assistance to identify and locate the person or persons responsible for a series of sexual assaults. It must be emphasized that there is no conclusive evidence they are related, however the suspect descriptions in these cases appears to be similar.
In each case, the suspect has reportedly grabbed a female victim while walking and subsequently attempted to sexually assault the victims. In two (2) of the incidents, the suspect reportedly produced a knife. It appears at this time that none of the victims were physically injured.
The reported incidents are as follows:

1. Monday, November 27, 2006- at approximately 5:25 p.m. in the 500 block of U Street, N.W.
2. Tuesday, November 28, 2006- at approximately 4:30 p.m. in the 400 block of Elm Street, N.W. ( knife used)
3. Tuesday, November 28, 2006- at approximately 4:20 p.m. in the 400 block of T Street, N.W.
4. Tuesday, November 28, 2006- sometime between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. in the 400 block of Warner Street, N.W. (knife used)

In each of these cases the suspect has been described as a black male, between 18 and 21 years old, 5'6" to 5"10 "tall, light to medium complexion with a short cut "Afro" hairstyle. The suspect is further described as having beady or squinty eyes and may have something wrong with his mouth or jaw. The subject was described as wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with black stripes, a long sleeve tee shirt and blue jeans. This subject should be considered armed and dangerous.
Anyone who has information regarding these cases is asked to call police at (202) 727-9099.
Inspector Patrick A. Burke
Metropolitan Police Dept. Washington, DC
Third District Sub-Station
750 Park Rd. NW Washington, DC 20010
Office: 202 576-7447
Fax: 202 576-3350
E-Mail: Patrick.Burke@dc.gov <mailto:Patrick.Burke@dc.gov>
Commitment to Excellence!

 

You can read this story and view a composite sketch of the suspect on CSNA's website at http://csnadc.org. Thanks Bryan Martin Firvida.

 

3) The Ward 2 Dems are sponsoring a Public Safety forum Saturday 9am – 4pm at the Foundry Methodist.

 

Monday, November 20, 2006

Dupont Public Safety/PSA 306 Meeting Reminder and News

Dupont Public Safety Meeting/PSA 306 is Tuesday November 21st at 7pm at the 3rd District Metropolitan Police Dept Headquarters at 1620 V Street. (Held on 3rd Tuesdays for Dupont and Kalorama-Sheridan issues.) Our community depends on good communications to and from our police. This is a roundtable meeting where we problem-solve. Bring an issue – no matter how minor. Or email me or our lieutenants items for discussion. I can’t make the meeting but hear Lt Paula LaGrand (CCed) will be in attendance.

 

Between the front page of the Post article last month on crime in the neighborhoods surrounding us and the new crime statistic website that should freak out anyone who does a search for crimes within 1000 feet of their house, school, bar, or work, I hope that motivated people to get involved in working with our policing agencies. You can now get a personalized mapping of the crimes around you or any where in the city. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101201813.html) (http://crimemap.dc.gov/presentation/query.asp)

 

Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty Names Pick for DC Police* See below.

 

I’ve started to post the Public Safety list emails to a blog at http://dupontpublicsafety.blogspot.com/. I’ve got 2003 up there and hope to get to posting the rest of my past blasts.

 

An issue that I’ve been on for years (the abandoned house-related crime on Willard) got some coverage:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/citydesk/2006/09/follow-that-story-pop-squatters.html

 

Interesting story possibly relating to the Swann murder:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601632.html

 

Nathan Johnson who has been convicted of breaking into numerous cars in Dupont. He’s been arrested again, released again, and not has not shown up for his court date again. So there is probably another warrant out for his arrest (picture attached.)  We are fools to tolerate this. The US Attorney is ineffectual. The laws aren’t adequate so that the courts can get away with sentencing him as lightly as they have. If the Community Prosecutors office gets back to me with the details of the trial, I’ll ask for Community impact statements from you.  More to follow on this.

 

 

Rob Halligan

 

 

Feel free to forward and to have associates ask to get on this list. Please advise if you’d like to be dropped from this list.

 

 

* Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty Names Pick for DC Police Chief MPD Cmdr. Cathy Lanier brings expertise in local policing and homeland security.

 

WASHINGTON-Today, DC Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty announced that he has asked 16-year law enforcement veteran and Metropolitan Police Department Homeland Security Commander Cathy Lanier to serve as the city's next chief of police.

 

"Commander Lanier has superbly served the residents of the District of Columbia for nearly two decades, and brings a unique understanding of both the importance of community policing and the expertise in homeland security that the top law enforcement officer of the nation's capital must possess," said Fenty about his choice of Lanier.

 

"I am honored that Mayor-elect Fenty has entrusted me with the safety and security of the citizens of the District of Columbia," said Commander Lanier. "From the beat level to executive service, I am intimately familiar with the District's residents, their needs and concerns," she added, concluding, "I am eager to join a talented, energetic Mayor-elect and his superb team in realizing the promise this city holds."

 

Commander Lanier has been with the Metropolitan Police Department for more than 16 years and currently serves as the Commanding Officer of the Office of Homeland Security & Counter-Terrorism. Working out of the Office of the Chief of Police, she has taken the lead role in developing and implementing coordinated counter-terrorism strategies for all units within the department. In this position, she has been responsible for all counter-terrorism operations, including investigations in partnership with the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force; developing and implementing all field training exercises, as well as conducting risk assessments and critical infrastructure protection of key sites within the nation's capital.

 

Prior to her current assignment, Commander Lanier served as the Commanding Officer of the Department's Special Operations Division (SOD) for four years where she managed members of the Emergency Response Team; Explosive Ordinance Unit; Aviation and Harbor Units; Horse Mounted and Canine Units; Domestic Security Unit; Special Events/Dignitary Protection Branch; and the Department's Civil Disturbance Units.

 

During her tenure as the SOD Commander, she established the agency's initial Homeland Security/Counter-Terrorism Branch and created an agency-wide chemical, biological, radiological response unit known as the Special Threat Action Team.

 

Commander Lanier spent more than 10 years of her career in the Uniform

Patrol Division. As the Commander of the Fourth District she created the Latino Advisory Council that later expanded to become the Latino Liaison Unit. She has also served as the Commanding Officer of the Department's Major Narcotics Branch and Vehicular Homicide Units in the Special Services Bureau.

 

Lanier has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice studies, from the University of the District of Columbia and a bachelor of science in management from Johns Hopkins University, where she went on to receive her master's in the same area of study. She also earned a master of arts in homeland security and defense from the Naval Postgraduate School. She has been honored for her law enforcement and homeland security work and holds a Top Secret Clearance with SCI Access.

 

Commander Lanier is 39 years old and the mother of one son. She comes from a family of public service. Her father retired a Deputy Chief in the Prince George's County Fire Department and her two brothers, one a captain in the Prince George's County Fire Department and the other a detective in the Greenbelt City Police Department, are still in public service today. Her mother, now retired and living with the Commander, worked more than 30 years in the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in Washington, D.C.