Political differences between District Council Member Kathy Patterson and the D.C. police union have escalated, with the union’s chief accusing Patterson of “mocking” the police and “embarrassing” the city.
The Fraternal Order of Police already has endorsed Patterson’s opponent, Vincent Gray, in the race to become the next District council chairman.
But in a letter issued this week, FOP Chair Kristopher Baumann says that Patterson smeared police officers during a recent budget debate.
Patterson was the lone council member to oppose hiring 100 new police officers for the District.
“The challenge is not more police but better police and fewer officers double-parked at Starbucks,” Patterson said during the floor debate.
In a letter addressed to the editor of The Northwest Current — a neighborhood newspaper that had carried Patterson’s remarks — Baumann said that Patterson’s words were “personally hurtful to police officers” and “an embarrassment for the city.”
“If Ms. Patterson believes she is capable of representing this entire city as chair of the council,” Baumann wrote, “she would be well served to visit the parts of this city that are not fortunate enough to have Starbucks or sufficient police coverage.”
The letter has not yet appeared in the Current, but Baumann gave a copy to The Examiner.
Baumann’s attitude toward Patterson isn’t shared by all the union’s members.
“She’s been the driving force behind improving homicide investigations and getting us our own DNA lab. She has had an open-door policy for the families of homicide victims,” Detective Jim Trainum said Wednesday. “The FOP has totally ignored that.”
Patterson says she stands by her remark.
“I see a squad car double-parked at the Starbucks on Connecticut Avenue a couple of days a week,” she said.
“What I was speaking to was something that a lot of people feel — that police have to do a better job.”
By the numbers
» Kathy Patterson says she opposed adding new officers because the District has scant resources and D.C. has the highest ratio of officers-to-citizens in the country already.
» There are 652 officers for every 100,000 people in the District.
