Metropolitan Police Department officials are investigating why officers dispatched to an attempted break-in in Northwest let the suspects go despite witness confirmation of their identities.
The officers’ commander has since described their work as “less than acceptable.”
First reported by “Amber” on the blog Prettier Than Napoleon, two men attempted to break into a woman’s home in the Third Police District July 7 — one by prying open the door, the other through a window — while she was inside. The woman called police, who responded and found the two men loitering in a nearby alley.
The woman identified the two men, according to the blog post, but officers declined to arrest them. One of the officers, the blogger wrote, told the woman: “D.C. doesn’t have an attempted burglary statute.” On the contrary, it is against the law to attempt a burglary or a break-in.
MPD Capt. Gerry O. Scott, assistant Third District commander, said Saturday that the two men have since been arrested, are now being held and an investigation is ongoing. In a post to the MPD Third District listserv, Scott wrote there is “no excuse for the lack of police services and I take full responsibility for the shortfall.”
“In the future I will do the best that I can do to ensure that services rendered are acceptable,” he wrote. “I view this offense as very serious and intrusive to have someone violate the sanctuary of someone’s home and the effort that was displayed by MPD was less than acceptable.”
