Metropolitan Police Department: Homicide Investigations, p1

Chief Charles H. Ramsey delivered the following statement to the Committee on the Judiciary, the Honorable Kathy Patterson, Chair, Council of the District of Columbia on January 21, 2003.

Madame Chair, members of the Council, staff and guests, good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present this opening statement before I take your questions. As is customary, the text of this statement is posted on the Police Department’s website: mpdc.dc.gov. In the 15 months since the Committee’s last hearing on homicide performance, our department has made some significant progress, and we continue to face some serious challenges with homicide. I will summarize both areas this evening.

First, some of the improvements….

One year ago, as you know, I established a centralized Violent Crimes Branch to investigate all homicides in the District. We staffed this unit with a core group of dedicated detectives and supervisors. And we provided them with the training and tools they need to do the job, including a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure. Our SOP has gained a lot of attention as a model for homicide investigations. Our Department has created a formal promotional process for detectives – something this committee had advocated for some time. And we have dramatically expanded and enhanced our training, not only for newly promoted detectives, but for our experienced investigators who now have access to specialized courses. For example, we have a four-week homicide investigations course that is scheduled to begin in early February. This comprehensive course will assist us in developing a cadre of trained detectives who can easily transition into the Violent Crimes Branch when there are vacancies for homicide detectives. Perhaps most importantly, we have intensified our focus on homicide investigations and we have strengthened accountability for achieving results. Individual homicide cases are reviewed by myself and other top Department executives and managers during our Daily Crime Briefings and our regular TOPS sessions, which stands for Targeted Organizational Performance Sessions. And we are closely monitoring the productivity and performance of individual detectives in our Violent Crimes Branch – in fact, throughout all detective units. Where detectives are not meeting the standards, we are taking action – including transfers and reassignments, when warranted.

I am cautiously encouraged by the initial results of these and other reforms – although let me make it perfectly clear that I am far from satisfied. Between 2001 and 2002, our homicide clearance rate did rise from just about 50 percent to nearly 55 percent. That places us right at the average for cities our size, according to FBI statistics. Now, I do not want to leave the impression that I consider "average" to be good enough. It is not good enough. But at least over the past year, we have begun heading in the right direction when it comes to clearing homicide cases. And I am encouraged that we will have even greater success in 2003.

The vast majority of our homicide closures in 2002 were the result of a suspect being arrested and charged in the District. According to FBI guidelines, a city’s closure rate also includes those cases that are cleared “exceptionally.” This means that the police have identified the suspect, but for any number of reasons, the person cannot be prosecuted. These reasons include the death of the suspect, his conviction and incarceration on other charges, a determination of self-defense or other situations in which the prosecution declines to prosecute. A good example of an exceptional clearance during 2002 involved the sniper shooting of Pascal Charlot on upper Georgia Avenue last October. He was killed with the same weapon that was used in the other sniper shootings in our region, and formal charges against the two suspects have been filed in the District. But because the suspects are not now in our custody – and, quite frankly, may never be tried in the District – we cannot close the case with an arrest. But we have closed the case as an “exceptional” clearance, as prescribed by FBI guidelines. As part of our homicide SOP, all exceptional clearances are reviewed and certified by our Office of Quality Assurance. This provides an independent analysis of the case and helps to ensure the integrity of the clearance process.