Metropolitan Police Department: Joint Public Oversight Hearing on Investigation into Use of Police Mobile Digital Computers-Page 1

Joint Public Oversight Hearing on Investigation into Use of Police Mobile Digital Computers (Cont.)

Committee on the Judiciary
The Honorable Kathy Patterson, Chair

Council of the District of Columbia
Charles H. Ramsey
Chief of Police
Metropolitan Police Department

Chairwoman Patterson, Chairman Graham, members of the Council and guests ... I appreciate the opportunity to update you - and the community, watching on Channel 13 - concerning the Metropolitan Police Department's continuing investigation into inappropriate and offensive messages exchanged by a small number of officers over our Mobile Digital Computer, or MDC, network. Under the direction of Assistant Chief Brian Jordan, who commands our Office of Professional Responsibility, we are making good progress in this investigation, which I have pledged would be thorough, exacting and wide-ranging. We continue to follow those standards, as I will outline in my testimony this evening.

For the record, let me state once again my feelings on this matter, which I have shared with members of our Department in both a videotaped message and a special newsletter: there is no place in the MPDC for racist, sexist, homophobic or malicious speech - or actions - of any sort. I generally dislike the term "zero tolerance" as it is has been used in policing. But in this matter, there will be zero tolerance for intolerance in the MPDC. Members who spew profanity, perpetuate ugly stereotypes, or make references to - or engage in - biased policing in any form will be identified, and strong disciplinary action will be taken - up to, and including, termination for the most serious violators.

As our investigation progresses, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are talking about only a small number of police officers who may be involved in the most egregious conduct. I realize the actions of this small group in no way reflect the integrity and professionalism of our Department as a whole. And I know that the vast majority of our members share my outrage and embarrassment over this matter. Still, the actions of a few can - and do - tarnish the image of the entire Department, and we simply cannot sit back and do nothing. So we have committed to doing three things in response to this situation: 1) deal - in a fair, but strong and swift manner - with the small minority of officers engaged in inappropriate or possibly illegal conduct; 2) ensure that this type of conduct never happens again; and 3) work to heal the wounds and restore the trust in the community that has been breached by this whole matter. Briefly, I want to explain the process we are following to achieve these objectives.

Approximately two months ago, I asked our Office of Quality Assurance to conduct an audit of some of the car-to-car communications over the MDC network. As you know, the MDCs have been a critical component of our technology plan. We purposefully designed the network to allow officers not only to run vehicle checks and other inquiries directly from their scout cars, but also to communicate with one another, car to car, in a secure environment that does not tie up radio traffic. I knew other police departments had experienced problems in the area of car-to-car messaging, and I wanted to assess the situation in our agency. A few weeks later I was presented with a sampling of messages that had been identified based on a relatively small set of "key words" that are clearly offensive. What I saw shocked, disgusted and saddened me.

I immediately directed OPR to initiate a confidential investigation into the matter - by "confidential," I mean an investigation in which we are not required to notify the subjects that they are under scrutiny. Just a few days later, Fox 5 News aired a story about the investigation, which included transcripts of some of the offensive messages. While this and subsequent news reports did compromise the confidentiality of the investigation, the investigation itself is proceeding.

One of our first steps was to notify critical partners of our actions, including the US Department of Justice, the US Attorney's Office, and the FBI. OPR established a management work group, consisting of ranking officials throughout the Department, to identify the nature of the problem in our Department. To give you some context for the scope of the investigation, between March 2000 and February 2001, there were some 4.1 million MDC records generated, of which nearly 971,000 were car-to-car communications made by 917 members. So our investigators are faced with a tremendous volume of material to scrutinize.