No. 2 internal affairs cop shifted to 3rd District after overtime flap
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
June 2, 2009
A top official in the D.C. police department’s internal affairs division has been transferred, barely two months after his agency was accused of turning a blind eye to corruption in the city’s court overtime program.
Inspector Jacob Kishter was transferred into the police’s 3rd District last week from internal affairs, where he was the second-highest ranking officer, the department announced on a neighborhood Web site.
Kishter replaces former Inspector Edward Delgado, who ran afoul of city Attorney General Peter Nickles last year when he urged neighbors in the gentrifying Columbia Heights neighborhood to lobby Nickles for a tougher stance on juvenile crime.
Delgado was demoted to captain and transferred to the ultraviolent 7th District.
Kishter’s transfer comes barely three weeks after The Examiner reported on accusations by fellow Inspector Hilton Burton that officers were bilking taxpayers by filing phony court overtime reports. Burton also accused “upper levels of the executive command staff” of having “chosen to ignore and disregard this blatant conduct.”
The department has since reopened an investigation into Burton’s allegations, and at least two veteran detectives have been pulled from the streets.
Kishter didn’t respond to requests for comment. Nor did his boss, Chief Cathy Lanier. Her spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, sent an e-mail declining to discuss the latest shake-up, except to say “members are reassigned or moved to different districts for various reasons.”
It’s at least the third time in the past two years that Lanier has replaced top officials in the internal affairs bureau.
Delgado made headlines last fall when he blasted the city’s juvenile justice system for failing to lock up a teenager suspected in 21 robberies. Delgado urged neighbors in Columbia Heights to “flood” Nickles with e-mails demanding tougher action against young offenders.
Nickles chastised Delgado for an “inappropriate” break of ranks and said publicly that he wasn’t bothering to read the e-mails from neighbors. Nickles didn’t respond to requests seeking comment on Delgado’s demotion and transfer.
In her three-plus years as top cop, Lanier has shaken up her command staff several times.
“The place is an absolute mess,” police union chairman Kris Baumann told The Examiner. “The environment is absolutely unstable. Everyone stands around on Friday, waiting to find out who has been transferred where and whose career has been ruined.”
Staff Writer Scott McCabe contributed to this report.
