Friday Question of the Day – What Questions Should Be Asked of MPD Chief Cathy Lanier and Others

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

After Wednesday’s daytime shooting we noted that there is going to be a crime meeting Sat. morning Oct. 9 from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at St. Gabriel’s Church, School Hall, 510 Webster Street, NW with Cathy Lanier, Chief of Police; Kimberly Missouri, Commander, Fourth District and many others including Council Member Muriel Bowser who organized the event. Unfortunately I have a wedding to go to and I will be out of town. But I know I have some questions and I’m wondering if it might be helpful to prepare some questions before the event. So for the Friday Question of the Day let’s take this opportunity to come up with some good questions for the Chief and others.

Ed. Note: I have the utmost respect for many officers in MPD and understand that the problem can not be fixed by MPD alone but I’m curious how they see their role.

Personally, I’d like to know what the Chief’s vision of community policing is and whether or not she thinks it is working? If she thinks is it is working, then what specifically can/should be done with gang retaliatory attacks that we see every year all over the city?

How come in my over 13 years in DC I’ve only seen cops on foot a handful of times? Simply, why don’t we see regular patrols on foot?

A quick aside, when I was walking home Thurs. afternoon I saw fresh gang graffiti on a pole near a recent shooting. I saw an MPD patrol car drive by and I stopped it. While the officer was extremely kind and attentive, I asked if they realized that there was gang graffiti here? They did not. Like I said, they were very attentive in writing down the info but my point is, if you are only riding around in a patrol car you are going to miss a lot of details.

I would also be curious if bluntly asked – does she see the problem of youth gangs/crews getting better, staying the same or getting worse? If not getting better – what can MPD do in the long term that is a preventative measure rather than simply reactive measures?

What questions will you ask?