The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department has allowed more than two dozen officers to keep their jobs despite having killed or maimed several citizens and having cost the District millions of dollars in civil suits, an Examiner review found.
When he became chief in 1998, Charles Ramsey inherited a department that led the nation in shootings of citizens. Faced with a federal takeover, he invited the Justice Department to review and rebuild the department’s standards for the use of force.
The violence has declined, but an analysis of settlements and verdicts against the department shows that at least 28 officers who have been successfully sued for excessive force are still on the police force. The allegations in the suits ranged from shooting a suspect while he lay on the ground to a beating a man to death in front of his mother’s home. Since 1998, such conduct has left dozens wounded or dead and cost the District almost $14 million in settlements alone. Eleven officers were involved in suits that cost more than $3.6 million.
None of the officers involved have been charged with a crime, and all have asserted that the incidents occurred in the line of duty.
Defenders of the department warn against drawing quick conclusions based on the lawsuit data; they say the Attorney General’s office often makes tactical decisions to settle a suit rather than risk a huge verdict from a D.C. jury.
But some public officials are worried that — despite bringing in the Justice Department — Ramsey is only paying lip service to reform.
“He’s failed to produce an effective personnel management system,” said District Council Member Kathy Patterson, D-Ward 3, an outspoken critic of the police department.
In a July 31 report on D.C.’s efforts to curb police violence, the Justice Department’s independent monitor found that D.C. police were only reporting 36 percent of violent incidents properly.
Joshua Ederheimer, the former D.C. police officer who negotiated with the Justice Department and wrote the department’s standards, said the low response rate is partially because officers fear they will be prosecuted criminally for using force and anything they write in the reports can be used against them.
Patterson said that means there are bound to be more even more civil suits coming while the department dithers.
“If you read through all the excuses for not having this up and running, it’s almost like saying ‘the dog ate my homework,’’’ she said.
Many of the settlements analyzed either predated Ramsey’s tenure or were filed in his early years. But many other more recent suits remain open, their outcomes unclear.
Patterson said the department is out of excuses.
“I think that a lot more needs to be done,” she said.
Some officers, like Ralph Richardson, have been sued more than once. In 1997, he was accused of slamming a man’s head into the wall as the man begged to speak with a superior officer.
According to the man’s complaint, Richardson told him, “If you don’t shut up, I’m going to [expletive] you up.”
A year later, Richardson was accused of beating a suspect with a blackjack, leaving him with a herniated disc, serious head wounds, a broken rib and a collapsed lung. The two suits cost the District $675,000.
Richardson is on patrol in the violent Seventh District in Southeast. He didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Or consider the status of Edward M. Ford. In 1993, he became a national figure in the debate over excessive force when he and another officer handcuffed a motorist to a mailbox. He was never charged in the case, but the woman sued the department and settled out of court.
He was also arrested on assault charges in 1993, 1995 and 1999.
Earlier this year, Ford was off-duty when he confronted a man who he thought had stolen tools from a house Ford was working on. Ford shot the man andkilled him.
He remains on the police force and didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Kristopher Baumann is the chair of the police union. He said that there have been “issues in the past” with police violence, but the city is too quick to settle lawsuits today, which tars the reputations of good officers.
“Police get angry because they want their day in court,” Baumann said. “They want to explain why they had to do it, but the city makes a tactical decision to settle. It’s terrible for police officers because they’re admitting we did something wrong.”
Kevin Morison, spokesman for Ramsey, agreed. He said he’s forbidden from discussing individual discipline, but the department “takes all allegations of police misconduct seriously.”
Still, some critics say the police department wouldn’t have to settle any case if it trained and watched its officers more carefully.
Gregory L. Lattimer is a plaintiff’s lawyer who has carved out a niche practice by suing the police. He said the department is focused solely on putting officers on the streets and doesn’t worry about what happens once they get there.
“You’ve got to be hopeful that you’ve been stopped by a well-trained officer,” Lattimer said. “Because it makes no difference to this department.”
