The Metropolitan Police Department’s 7th District station stole the spotlight at the annual MPD awards ceremony last week, suspending the city’s long-standing stigma — at least for one night — of crime-ridden streets lying “east of the river.”
7D took home eight awards, including the department’s Best Performing District. Its officers had a breakthrough year despite presiding over Southeast neighborhoods like Anacostia and Congress Heights, known for high crime rates. In just a year, homicides in their district were cut by more than half: from 45 in 2010 to 20 last year.
Chief Cathy Lanier also recognized the officers for attending 1,200 community meetings, making more than 9,000 arrests and seizing more than 300 guns.
“We’re making criminals know that this is not an area where their activity will be tolerated any longer,” said Cmdr. Joel Maupin, who took home Commander of the Year.
His station’s Crime Suppression Team, a hand-picked group of eight officers led by Sgt. Anthony Greene, also earned top team honors. Unlike the Police Service Area forces, the team works in more loosely defined spots of spiked crime and takes calls directly from community members.
The award was a nod to their growing relationship with residents of the area neighborhoods. Many even have Greene’s cellphone number.
The station earned another six awards: PSA of the Year (PSA 704), Officer of the Year (Officer Roderick Sanders), Detective of the Year (James Francis), Volunteer of the Year (resident Patricia Cade), the Office of Community Outreach’s Unit award (coordinator Lendia Johnson) and the MPD Partner award (the district’s Citizen Advisory Council Chairman James Bunn).
“I think with every success we have it brings in more of the community to get involved and see that their involvement really makes a difference,” Maupin said.
