D.C. police gave an escort to the New York Rangers hockey team one day after Chief Cathy Lanier called the decision to give that privilege to bad boy Charlie Sheen a violation of department policy. The Rangers and team owners were staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Foggy Bottom and all were taken to the Verizon Center, police officials confirmed. After the game, the team was escorted to Union Station for their ride home and the owners were escorted “to the District line to ensure their safe departure from the city. No [police department member] conducted any operations related to this detail outside the city limits and all vehicles operated in accordance with traffic laws,” according to Commander Hilton Burton. Off-duty officers “conducted a reimbursable detail to the N.Y. Rangers to ensure they made it safely to their playoff game,” Burton said in an emailed statement to The Washington Examiner.
But just days earlier, Burton was highly critical of the decision to give Sheen an escort. “This is why we should not do escorts for any and everybody,” Burton emailed his staff on April 20, asking them for details on the escort provided to the actor.
Police union chief Kris Baumann said the escort for the Rangers, coming in the wake of the Sheen controversy, shows a lack of institutional control at police headquarters. “It should be a concern for anyone that it took the chief of police 36 hours to cobble together a policy for police escorts that the department immediately violated the next day,” Baumann said.
Lanier said days after the Sheen controversy that escorts are only for top politicians like the president, vice president and mayor, along with visiting foreign dignitaries.
But it appears they have been routinely provided to sports teams and celebrities.
In October 2007, two D.C. police officers were injured when they crashed while escorting the Arizona Cardinals to a football game against the Washington Redskins. Documents obtained by The Examiner show on March 13, 2008, the Cleveland Cavaliers had a police escort from the Four Seasons Hotel to the Verizon Center and back.
On April 19, Twitter messages posted by Sheen indicated traffic laws weren’t followed by his escort to DAR Constitution Hall for a performance. The actor posted a picture of a speedometer needle at 80 mph. The next day, media inquiries poured into Lanier’s office asking about the department’s policy on providing escorts and if the District had been reimbursed by Sheen, internal department emails obtained by The Examiner show.
Lanier didn’t respond until April 22, saying Sheen’s production company paid the District $445 for the escort.
