Washington, D.C.’s outgoing police chief Cathy Lanier criticized the city’s criminal justice system for failing to prevent repeat violent offenders from returning to society, citing a lack of accountability among local and federal agencies responsible for disciplining criminals.
"The criminal justice system in this city is broken," Lanier told the Washington Post on Monday. "It is beyond broken."
Despite a dropping crime rate under Lanier’s nearly decade-long tenure, the outgoing police chief said a lack of outrage over repeat offenders who are consistently allowed back on the street helped drive her decision to join the National Football League as head of security.
Police arrested a man on home detention last week who went on a crime spree from Maryland to D.C. that included a robbery, a shooting, and a car theft that led to a crash leaving a bystander critically injured. Lanier said the man’s GPS tracking device "went offline" on Aug. 12, but the agency tasked with supervising the man did not notify police or take action.
"That shouldn’t happen. And it’s happening over and over and over again. Where the hell is the outrage?" she said. "People are being victimized who shouldn’t be. You can’t police the city if the rest of the justice system is not accountable."
Lanier said residents "want more police" and an increase in arrests, "but if we’re arresting the same people over and over again, there’s got to be some questions being asked."
Lanier and D.C.’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser raised the issue during the summer of 2015 when homicides spiked largely because of repeat offenders, according to authorities.
The Post noted that it is difficult to explore the decisions made about an offender’s release and supervision because of a complex justice system. Many agencies in D.C.’s criminal justice process are overseen by federal officials, rather than local authorities, on matters that include "bail, detention, the filing of charges, and the monitoring of suspects under court supervision," according to the Post.
D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said that while he recognizes Lanier’s "frustration with [D.C. police] bearing the brunt of the public’s outrage over crime in the District, I wholeheartedly disagree with her characterization that our criminal justice system is broken beyond repair."
Lanier, who is set to depart the police department in two weeks, often collided with prosecutors regarding evidence and the filing of charges.
"Unfortunately, no system is perfect, and in those isolated instances in which problems are identified, we work with our law enforcement partners to address them moving forward," the District’s top prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, said in a statement.
Still, Lanier expressed hope that policing nationwide would progress "to be much more service-oriented and much more collaborative than it is now."