A day after Mayor Adrian Fenty publicly cleared a police officer who was on duty when two bikes were stolen from his home, the officer was informed by superiors that he is the target of an internal investigation, The Washington Examiner has learned.
Officer Wilson Liriano was told that he’s facing discipline for negligence in a late Tuesday afternoon meeting at police headquarters, his union leader, Kris Baumann, said.
Liriano was in a guard booth at Mayor Adrian Fenty’s home when three young thieves made off with mountain bikes from the mayor’s garage. Liriano saw the thieves on a closed-circuit television and alerted his superiors, but was unable to catch the thieves.
On Monday, Fenty’s spokeswoman issued a statement that Liriano “followed proper protocol” in the incident.
But the questioning of Liriano has re-stoked the controversy.
“This is why officers don’t have any confidence in the management of this police department,” Baumann said. “You can’t continually tell people that you’re doing one thing when the truth is entirely different. Things are done for public relations purposes that are detrimental to public safety.”
Neither Fenty spokeswoman Mafara Hobson nor police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump responded to requests for comment.
Posted guard booth rules require officers to monitor their televisions continually and to alert their supervisors if they see anything untoward. At least two other officers have been disciplined after incidents on the mayoral property. In 2008, an officer was given a reprimand for dereliction after graffiti was sprayed on the Fenty garage. Another officer is fighting a 15-day suspension after being blamed for allowing a neighborhood woman to approach the Fenty home with pamphlets in December 2009.
Fenty is in a tough re-election campaign. His chief rival, Council Chairman Vince Gray, has demonstrated huge leads in local polls and Fenty has been getting boos at his public appearances.
Hoping to sell himself to voters, Fenty has burnished his crime-fighting credentials.
