Probe of Rowdy Police Officers in Capital Is Vowed

Saying that National Police Week should not be an occasion for a “spring fling or Ft. Lauderdale celebration,” District of Columbia. Police Chief Fred Thomas vowed Friday to pursue allegations that out-of-town police officers mooned guests, groped women and damaged property at hotels.

Thomas said he also will conduct a thorough review of the conduct of his own officers, who responded to at least a dozen calls concerning disturbances at two hotels on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights but failed to make a single arrest.

Thomas acknowledged that drinking had been a problem for years at a police week gathering sponsored by the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police in a mall area outside police headquarters. But he said that in past years, nothing happened there--or at any hotels--approaching the magnitude of this week’s disturbances.

Hundreds of officers occupied several downtown hotels during police week. Hotel security guards and guests told of officers in uniform with holstered guns who appeared intoxicated, ran through hallways and harassed women.

In one case, an employee at the Hyatt Regency Hotel said he watched a group of 20 officers wearing New York Police Department uniforms disrobe and slide down an escalator that had been made slick with beer. In another, witnesses said officers triggered fire alarms that led to the evacuation of the Hyatt.

New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said Friday that no individual New York officer has been identified as among those who committed acts described by hotel employees and guests.

Hotel officials and D.C. police officers said the annual gathering has had trouble before, with reports of vandalism, rowdiness and the theft of police property such as license plates from vehicles in parking garages.