The Guardian, Winter 2014: News and Notes

News and Notes

METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Mayor Vincent Gray, Deputy Mayor Paul Quander, Chief Cathy Lanier and other city officials on Oct. 3 officially opened the department’s Tactical Training Facility, located at Blue Plains Drive SW on the grounds of an old MPD shooting range. “This is a crucial facility that will help our MPD officers keep us safe,” Mayor Gray said. The project included the construction of two new structures, the Gas House and the Tactical Village. The Gas House is a single-story, 1,000-square-foot structure that will be used to train officers and recruits on the use of tear gas, pepper spray and other MPD non-lethal ordnance. The Tactical Village is a 40 foot-tall, pre-engineered metal building that houses a realistic representation of an urban environment. “Our new Tactical Training Facility will help us provide state-of-the-art training to recruits and continuing education for current MPD officers in an environment that closely simulates what they might encounter in the real world,” said Chief Lanier.

MPD officers were a big part in arresting five suspects in an electronics burglary scheme. Four DC men and one man from Prince George’s County are believed to be responsible for 46 known burglaries around the Washington area, stealing phones, computers and other items of value from retail cellular phone stories worth an estimated $77,000. Chief Lanier said this bust sends a message to criminals: “If you steal from individuals and businesses and then resell their stolen property in Washington, DC and the surrounding area, we will find you and arrest you.”

The Department of Forensic Sciences assisted in an MPD investigation in which a DNA match led to an arrest in a nearly 30-year-old cold case. In 1984, Rachel Cox was sexually assaulted and stabbed to death in Southeast DC. Earlier this year, a DNA profile of her attacker was developed. A database of registered sex offenders came back with a match: A 55-year-old man from Woodbridge, who was arrested Nov. 5 at his residence and charged with first-degree murder.

- By Gwendolyn Crump

FIRE & EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

In August, FEMS announced the purchase of 30 new ambulances to be delivered by Dec. 31, and introduced new firefighter recruits/cadets as well as paramedics. “Today marks a turning point for the department,” Chief Kenneth Ellerbe said at that event at Engine Company No. 2. More than a dozen ambulances have been received, and the remaining vehicles are on schedule to be delivered by the end of the year. “Once delivery is complete, the Department will have replaced about two-thirds of its ambulances within three years,” said Chief Ellerbe, who oversaw the purchase of 25 new ambulances in 2011. “That’s unprecedented.”

In September, Chief Ellerbe noted that changes and institutional controls put in place to reduce response times to calls were making a positive difference. In January, the average response time for the first arriving ambulance to a critical medical call took more than eight minutes. By July 2013, the average response time had dropped to 6 minutes and 35 seconds.

Nine paramedics graduated in October, as FEMS continued its push to have plenty of emergency workers to staff its larger ambulance fleet. Four out of 5 calls for service to FEMS are for medical assistance.

A month later, FEMS graduated 28 cadets and recruits who were trained by the Department to be firefighters and nationally certified emergency medical technicians. This marked the second fire cadet graduation since Mayor Vincent Gray and Chief Ellerbe reinstated the program in 2011.

On Nov. 8, FEMS launched its free mobile app, which offers a variety of safety and emergency information to users, including how to perform CPR, create a family emergency plan, finding the nearest engine company based on your location, and evacuation routes from the District. It also provides updates from the FEMS Facebook and Twitter.  “Smartphones and other mobile devices can help people access a lot of information quickly,” said Chief Ellerbe. “This app is another way for people to interact with the Department and get information that can help in an emergency.”

Also in November, FEMS hosted the National Arson Dog Recertification. More than 70 handlers are their dogs from around the United States and Canada showed their stuff, sniffing out minute traces of accelerants that could be used to start a fire. Among the teams earning their recertifications was FEMS Arson Investigator Scott Wilson, and his canine partner, Roo.

-  By Timothy J. Wilson

DEPARTMENT OF FORENSIC SCIENCES

DFS just received the quarterly agency award from Deputy Mayor Paul Quander for "outstanding exemplary service and dedication to the residents of the District." No surprise, considering how things have gone there lately. Mayor Vincent Gray helped the agency celebrate its one-year-anniversary at the beginning of October. “Remember that just a few years ago, the District was sending some of its evidence off to the FBI for analysis,” said Mayor Vincent Gray. “Now the FBI is among the dozens of law-enforcement agencies and more than 20 nations that have sent delegations here to learn about the CFL’s LEED-Platinum-certified building, DFS’s ground-breaking policies, and its novel approach to independent science.” Since its opening, the Forensic Science Laboratory has reduced its backlog of active D.C. cases by nearly 60 percent in DNA and more than 70 percent in firearms and fingerprints. Further, new services are being developed such as digital evidence and materials analysis, as well as the potential for newborn screening. “I cannot wait to get started on our second year,” Director Max Houck said.

 A double shot of good news came at the beginning of November for DFS. Its Public Health Laboratory received approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin operations at the first Biosafety Level 3 lab in the national capital region. That means that the city can now conduct biological analysis that will identify dozens of materials that the CDC’s Division of Select Agents and Toxins has determined to “have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety,” including bubonic plague, the smallpox virus and man-made toxins such as ricin and anthrax.  “We have trained hard for this, worked hard for this, and achieved this through teamwork,” said PHL Director Alpha Diallo.

Just a few days later, DFS’s Forensic Science Laboratory was approved for accreditation by meeting international standards for forensic operations. “Accreditation assures industry and government decision-makers that the organizations are competent and their results can be relied on,” said Bill Hirt of the American National Standards Institute-American Society of Quality, which said the District’s lab meets ISO Standard 17025 for testing and calibration. Director Houck said he was “immensely pleased... They achieved international accreditation in about eight months; that’s unheard of in this industry.”

- By Keith St. Clair

HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

In September, the District’s Emergency Preparedness Council launched the District Emergency Response System. DCERS supports D.C. agencies in developing, refining and expanding emergency response capabilities and capacity. The DCERS Committee, a subcommittee to the EPC, will meet monthly to 1) determine capability needs, 2) identify existing capabilities that can be institutionalized, 3) develop projects to address these determinations, 4) prioritize projects, and 5) provide oversight and project management to homeland security related projects.  The committee will form working groups to conduct integrated planning, training and exercises, and logistics. DCERS will also serve as a collaborative partnership between District agencies and the private sector to bolster emergency management and homeland security capacity through regional integration, and will coordinate closely with National Capital Region neighbors and partners, including the Northern Virginia Emergency Response System and the Maryland Emergency Response System.

Emergency managers from the 25 largest cities in the country attended the Annual Big City Emergency Management meeting hosted by HSEMA on Oct. 28–30.  Chaired by Joseph Bruno, Commissioner of New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, BCEM fosters the development and growth of robust and nimble emergency management organizations in the nation’s largest, most at-risk metropolitan jurisdictions so that the country is better positioned to prevent, protect against, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from major incidents and catastrophic emergencies. Mayor Vincent Gray kicked off the meeting, which focused on best practices from the past year dealing with major events including SuperStorm Sandy, the Asiana plane crash, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Denver area flooding, and the Navy Yard shootings. 

Learning from prior catastrophic events locally and around the nation, the resiliency of a community is directly linked to how quickly goods and services begin to ­flow to the impacted area.  To formalize its emergency management relationship with the private sector, HSEMA established the Business Emergency Management Operations Center. BEMOC will facilitate the interaction between the public and private sectors before, during and after an emergency. For businesses, participation in the BEMOC is free and open to all companies that are located in, or doing business in, the District of Columbia. BEMOC will operate both as a virtual and brick-and-mortar organization as part of the District’s Emergency Operations Center and will provide year-round situational awareness, training, exercises, and best practice development programs that focus on disaster planning, response, and recovery to the private-sector.  Since July, BEMOC has enrolled over 30 businesses or trade organizations representing five critical lifeline sectors during an emergency (food, financial, fuel, hospitality and commercial real estate). For information, contact Ellen Cornelius at ellen.cornelius@dc.gov. 

- By Nicole Chapple

OFFICE OF UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

The District was designated as a 2013-15 Citizen Engaged Community by the Public Technology Institute, and OUC led the charge. The program recognizes excellence in multi-channel contact centers and best practices for the use of Citizen Relationship/Records Management systems, 311, web portal technology, telephony systems and mobile communications infrastructure. OUC has recently implemented many new enhancements, including 311 Call Back Assistance, which allows residents to schedule a call back from 311 at their convenience. The District’s Citywide Call Center is open 24/7.

The visitors’ lobby at the Unified Communications Center has undergone a major makeover, led by OUC Director Jennifer Greene. Besides the comfortable new seating, highlights at the UCC lobby include artifacts and a new mural by artist Aniekan Udofia that depicts the history of public safety communications in the District. The visitor’s lobby displays actual communication radios and artifacts used by 911, police, and fire personnel dating back to the early 1970s. A special thank you goes out to the Washington DC Fire & EMS Museum for donating several items. Among the museum’s distinct artifacts is the Ambulance Board formally used at the old Fire Communications Center on McMillan Drive, featuring hospitals in the DC metro area, a few of which are now closed, such as Walter Reed and Capitol Hill Hospital.

OUC continues its push to get DC residents to sign up for Smart911, which allows them to create a Safety Profile for their household that includes any information they want 911 to have in the event of an emergency. So first responders can have access to vital information like floor plans of a home and medical conditions of its residents before they arrive at a scene. And OUC is working with the D.C. Office on Aging to education seniors across the city about the important of setting up a Smart911 profile.

OUC Operations Chief Stephen Williams graduated from the District’s Certified Public Manager Program. DCHR administers the year-long, nationally accredited program, which is designed to enhance the skills of the District government’s manager and provide them with the tools to be highly effective leaders.

 - By Wanda Gattison

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

DC Jail Chaplain Betty Green was selected by the Salvation Army as their 2013 Chaplain of the Year and received the award during the American Correctional Association’s annual summer conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor in August.  Green was honored for her vision, dedication and outstanding service in the field of corrections. “The Department of Corrections’ family is incredibly proud of Chaplain Green,”  says Director Tom Faust. “She has a pioneering spirit and a love for the work she does both in the jail and community." Green began her career with DOC in 1973. Faust said she is “credited with being one of the founders of our Linking Institutions, Neighborhoods and Community Services initiative, which brings together representatives from faith and community-based organizations, and the public sector to form a network of pre- and post-release resources for the inmate population.” Additionally, Green has made major contributions to the department’s reentry programming efforts, led the volunteer corps, and established partnerships that supported the start of Community Resource Day — which allows inmates preparing for community release to directly access housing, employment, education and other resources crucial to successful reintegration.

Actor and best-selling author Hill Harper visited DOC’s Juvenile Unit on Nov. 14 and spoke to participants in the Free Minds Book Club and Writing Workshop. Hill’s recently released book is Letters to an Incarcerated Brother: Encouragement, Hope, and Healing for Inmates and Their Loved Ones. “This opportunity is just another example of Free Minds’ commitment to improving the lives of the young men in our custody,” said Director Faust. “Anytime an author comes to visit it’s very exciting, because it motivates the Free Minds members to read and write more,” said Tara Libert, cofounder and executive director of Free Minds. “This time is even more exciting, because not only do they get to learn about the craft of writing, they also get to meet a great role model who is successful and still makes the effort to give back to the community.”

- By Sylvia Lane

OFFICE OF RETURNING CITIZEN AFFAIRS

The Re-Entry Resource Center officially opened in August, and Mayor Vincent Gray was among those on hand to mark the occasion. The center, at 2100 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, puts in one central location a comprehensive offering of services and can provide referrals to municipal, federal and community partners. Moving from incarceration back into society poses many challenges, not the least of which is men and women having to adapt to the changes in technology. ORCA’s digital inclusion program helps returning citizens learn necessary computer skills that can help them obtain and maintain employment. A computer lab is an important part of the new center. “The opening of this center positions ORCA as the hub of reintegration and resocialization in the District of Columbia,” Mayor Gray said.

Director Charles Thornton and ORCA staffers took approximately 30 DC children on a free day trip to visit their parents incarcerated in federal prison in West Virginia on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. "We are well aware that family bonding and reunification will make families stronger when they face the challenges of incarceration and reentry,” Director Thornton said. “We are very grateful that we can facilitate such a task.”

- By Lashonia Etheridge-Bey

OFFICE OF VICTIM SERVICES/JUSTICE GRANT ADMINISTRATION

OVS in August launched its free ASK DC smartphone application, an innovative resource for DC residents and visitors to help fight sexual assault/rape, including dating and intimate partner violence. The app and website (http://www.askdc.org/) provides a multitude of resources to assist victims and aid in their recovery.  A college version of the app and website (http://www.uaskdc.org/) launched a month later. “We have developed a tool with students, for students, that we can make available to every university town in the country,” said Director Melissa Hook. “Now, for the first time all the campus and community sexual assault service providers are easily accessible for students.”

- By Keith St. Clair