WASHINGTON — DC Police needs more detectives and smarter deployment of its offers in the department’s fight to stop crime, according to the findings included in a report released Thursday by the Office of the District of Columbia Auditor.
The 459-page report is based on a staffing study of DC’s Metropolitan Police Department.
Among the auditor's key findings:
- DC Police doesn’t have enough detectives, and doesn’t always have patrol officers in the right places at the right times
- Based on an analysis of caseload and other factors for MPD detectives, the report says the department’s Investigative Services Bureau or ISB needs 65 additional detectives to operate effectively
- Of those 65 new detectives:
- 11 are needed in the carjacking unit
- 5 needed in the child sex abuse office
- 4 needed to investigate sexual assault and human trafficking cases
"You can look and see how and where officers are deployed, which can change various kinds of needs, just look around the country at other similar departments and look at how they're using their officers to do some of the work," said DC's ODCA Deputy Auditory for Public Safety. "The bottom line is these are all options available that can get you better potential resources that you have."
The recommendations come at a time when MPD is already struggling with low staffing levels, losing officers to retirement or other departments. To help combat that, the study found that rather than adding to the total number of patrol officers on the street, MPD should adjust personnel to better meet workload.
"The key is the right number of detectives in a particular unit based on the amount of work, touch time, how many hours, how many days, how many warrants," Senior Advisor to the PFM Center for Justice & Safety Dr. Ronal Serpas said. "And then, how are they actually being managed, which is something we didn't do in this report, but how are they being managed which is the more likely definition of a high performing agency clearing cases."
For instance, in July 2023, which was included in the period the researchers studied, one-third of all patrol officers were assigned to the midnight shift, but only a quarter of the 9-1-1 calls come in during that time.
The auditor wants MPD to cut overnight patrol staffing, and beef up patrols during the day and evening hours, as well as shifting more officers to District 3 downtown in Northwest and District 7 in the Southeast Anacostia area.
In an emailed statement, DC Police told WUSA9:
“The central conclusion of the report – that there is sufficient staffing in patrol and too many officers working patrol at night – is at odds with reality and does not align with the feedback from residents and businesses throughout the city. With MPD’s current sworn workforce at a 50-year low, we are listening to residents and continuing to work to increase staffing while making the Department more efficient."
The report also suggests MPD shift civilians into administrative roles held by sworn officers, and putting those sworn officers back on the street. The study also called on MPD to greatly improve its data collection on how officers and detectives are using their time to continue to adjust staffing and officer allocation moving forward.
The recommendations come at a time when crime is actually down in the District, with murders and overall violent crime down a third from where D.C. was this time last year.
"When you think about the duties associated with what some of these officers are being tasked with, there could be other agencies better aligned in the long term, if they are resourced properly and held to having their workloads shifted outside of MPD, provides for an opportunity for MPD to maximize it's resources for the things it is responsible for like calls for service and protecting their neighborhoods," said Erice Monlancn, the former deputy commissioner and chief of staff in the Baltimore Police Department and former chief of staff in the New Orleans Police Department.
MPD said it does plan to hire dozens of civilians in the next fiscal year to help improve operations or move sworn officers to more operational roles.