More Than 1,000 Police Officers Vote 'No Confidence' in Chief Lanier

The police union for Washington, D.C. police has spoken: More than 97 percent of its members say they have “no confidence” in their leader, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, according to the group.

More than 1,000 officers voted in the online vote, which was taken Friday through Sunday.

The union tweeted out: “97.5% of the members that voted said “NO” they DO NOT have confidence in Chief Lanier’s leadership for MPD.”

“We‘ve been told that the status quo is working and we‘ve been forced into a corner of lackluster, feckless, inefficient enforcement,” the union said, in a press release issued Monday morning.

Just one-third of the members took the vote.

Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser released the following statement in support of MPD Chief Cathy Lanier:

“After 25 years of policing DC streets, deploying officers and strategies, and building a force of highly qualified officers and leaders, in the good times and the tough times, too, I have every confidence in Chief Lanier.”

The vote was taken over the weekend at the same time the police chief called for “all hands on deck,” pulling many police officers into service on the streets of the nation’s capital.

The vote comes amidst Lanier’s changes to police force duties as a response to the D.C. homicide rate (up 43 percent compared to last year, according to NBC4) in the District.

The vote is anonymous.

“There’s no secret we’re coming up on election time for the union and we’re coming up on an “all hands on deck’ weekend,” Lanier said earlier this week on WAMU.

The union was also vocal in its opposition to the Chief’s decision to eliminate vice units within each patrol district, replacing them with centralized teams.

“The DC Police Union believes the dismantling of the district vice units is one of the main contributors to our current inability to combat rampant gun violence,” the union said in a news release.

“We have a lot of soft resources that I can move from place to place, but I don’t micromanage district commanders,” Lanier said earlier. “I give them extra resources and then I expect them through knowing and working with the officers that work in those districts and working with the community members that live in those communities to deploy strategies that they feel are most effective.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser laid out a plan dubbed“Safer, Stronger” last week to fight crime that includes getting more cops on the beat by increasing overtime pay; Lanier proposed to add more civilians to do desk work and get more police on the street.