Police Shootings in D.C. Down Almost 66% in Year

The District of Columbia Police Department, whose officers shot and killed more people per resident in the 1990s than those of any other large U.S. city, reduced the number of police shootings in 1999 by nearly 66%, compared with 1998.

Since January 1999, D.C. police have shot 11 people, four fatally, compared with 32 shootings, 12 fatal, in 1998. Although District police killed fewer people in shootings in 1999, the percentage of those shot by police who ultimately died remained roughly the same.

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey credited a new lethal-force policy, expanded, more intensive training and supervision for the reduction.

“The department’s past problems with use of force . . . have primarily been problems with policies, training, equipment and supervision, not problems with the quality of our officers,” Ramsey said. “We have worked very hard to provide our members with clear policies on the use of force and to support those policies with better equipment, training and supervisory oversight. These latest statistics indicate that our approach is beginning to have an impact.”

But some police officers question whether the additional training and new policy are major factors.

“Some years are more violent than others,” said Det. Frank Tracy, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police/Metropolitan Police Department Labor Committee, which has about 3,200 members. “You can have all the training in the world, but if you have people coming at you using deadly force, the numbers are going to be different.”

Officials expanded training for police officers and revamped department policy after a Washington Post examination found D.C. police officers had shot and killed more people per capita during the last 10 years than those of any other major city police department and had fired their weapons at more than double the rate of officers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. The newspaper’s investigation found examples of reckless gunplay by poorly trained officers and reported the department often ruled such shootings justified despite evidence contradicting the official accounts.

The Post examination and the community’s perception that the department couldn’t investigate itself properly prompted Ramsey to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to review every fatal shooting by officers in the past decade. The review is still being conducted.