WASHINGTON — The Office of the DC Auditor (ODCA) released a report Thursday detailing the discipline process a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer goes through if that officer is fired and eventually reinstated. ODCA calls the discipline process "complicated and confusing."
According to the report, for every three police officers terminated by the police department, two have returned to the force primarily because of independent arbitrators believed firing was too severe a punishment or the department missed deadlines, overstepped its authority or provided insufficient evidence, according to the audit.
The review found MPD reinstated 37 officers who were fired for a variety of offenses -- including several whose behavior was categorized by ODCA as a "threat to safety" -- and paid 36 of them millions of dollars in back pay following lengthy, complicated and costly reinstatement cases.
The audit was prompted by an earlier audit of settlements paid by the District government that shows that over an 18-month period, millions in backpay was awarded to 10 MPD officers who were fired and then got their jobs back by appealing the termination.
“What we found is consistent with concerns raised by the Police Reform Commission,” said D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson. “We’re recommending legislation to put elected officials in the driver’s seat on what is and is not behavior that merits termination from MPD.”
As of September 2022, 15 of the 37 reinstated officers reviewed by ODCA were employed at MPD, including three who were terminated for misconduct that ODCA classified as a “threat to safety.” The report defines those cases as including "risk of harm to persons through action or inaction, such as physical and sexual violence, mishandling firearms, or compromising evidence related to an arrest. The other reason for termination was defined as "administrative" and includes reasons such as time theft, fraud, misrepresentation of injuries and other misconduct.
Threat to safety cases included:
• Two officers who failed to make an arrest under domestic violence statutes.
• An officer who was terminated three separate times, two prior to the audit’s scope, and had been arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon.
• An officer who had been found guilty in D.C. Superior Court for simple assault.
Reinstatement cases described as “administrative” included
• An officer who demanded free passage on an Amtrak train from Baltimore to New York City.
• A married couple, both officers, who falsified home addresses in order to enroll children in a D.C. public charter school.
On average the reinstatement cases reviewed by ODCA lasted almost eight years. MPD and the Fraternal Order of Police, who appealed most of the termination cases, had no time limit to move forward on cases. For most cases, it took an average of 5.8 years just to complete the first step of an appeal, the report said.
The audit recommends that when the Council acts on permanent legislation to codify the removal of discipline from collective bargaining (as approved most recently in the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Congressional Review Emergency Amendment Act of 2022), it should make clear in D.C. Code or report language that the action eliminates arbitration and assigns additional responsibilities to the Office of Employee Appeals.
The report’s recommendations include:
• To minimize subjectivity over the severity of discipline for misconduct and ensure discipline decisions reflect current policy, the D.C. Council should codify the MPD table of penalties.
• The Mayor and Council should direct the review and amendment of MPD General Order GO-120, 6 DCMR § 1001.5, and/or D.C. Code § 5–133.06 to address the inconsistency between
General Orders and D.C. Code that has resulted in overturned terminations.
• MPD should comply with statutory requirements on timely action in discipline matters, provide evidence sufficient to support any MPD appeals, and recommend clarification to the requirements to the extent needed.
DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson says the report shows the need to pass the ‘Strengthening Oversight and Accountability of Police Amendment Act of 2021’ and permanently codify Subtitle L of the ‘Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2021’ which will make sure officers are held accountable for wrongdoing.
“The most common reason for reinstatement was an arbitrator substituting his/her opinion for the Chief. And that’s a problem,” Mendelson added. “This report highlights a fraction of the total police force, but even the smallest number of bad actors throws the entire Department into question. These offenders must not be allowed to evade accountability.”
The full report is below: