WASHINGTON — Seven officers with the Metropolitan Police Department have been removed from a specialized police unit after an internal investigation led to the discovery of a series of misconduct incidents that involved police stopping people and taking firearms from them, but not making an arrest.
DC Police Chief Robert Contee announced on Friday that a member of the community made a complaint on Sept. 11 about an incident involving police officers and an investigation was initiated stemming from that interaction.
During the internal review of body camera footage, the police department found a prior incident unrelated to the community member's complaint that involved misconduct. More specifically, two officers were discovered taking an illegal gun from a suspect and then letting them go free early this month.
After continued investigation, five more officers from the same unit, the specialized crime suppression unit in Southeast D.C., were found doing the same thing after a review of three months of footage.
Chief Contee says the guns were submitted as evidence but the officer's description of what happened did not correlate with the body worn camera video.
The seven officers have been placed on non-contact status after seven instances of taking illegal firearms and not making any arrests, according to the police chief. Their unit has been reassigned as the investigation continues into the circumstances surrounding the misconduct.
"We have a responsibility to community, to make communities safer. And that includes taking bad guys to jail, people who have illegal firearms," Chief Contee said. "That does not make communities safer when we allow people, in some instances, potentially armed felons to go to going about their business."
One of the police department's missions is to get illegal firearms off the streets of D.C. to help reduce shootings and homicides. In 2021, the DC Police took 2,410 illegal firearms off the streets.
Contee does not believe this problem is widespread within the department, but the investigation will follow the evidence.