7.28.2003

Pigsty: Be careful in D.C., part III

Chuck Ramsey fired two 911 call center employees whose negligence may have contributed to slow response time in a Dupont Circle fire last January that killed a man.

"I feel numb," Anderson said. "I guess I just never believed that they actually had the nerve to do this."
Yeah, losing your job for being indirectly responsible for a man's burning death is just not fair.

In her defense, Ramsey has refused to release the report on the fire public, which apparently casts some doubt on whether this was really a laziness problem or more of an equipment/telephone problem instead. Still, she sounds more upset about losing her job than the death, which is about par for D.C.

Meanwhile, over 20 percent of D.C. current police trainees failed their final exam. (Should you a. shoot first, b. ask questions later, c. hang out all day at the 7-11, or d. all of the above?)

Meanwhile some more, the reward for coming forward in a D.C. homicide investigation increased from $10,000 to $25,000, which the city hopes will convince more people to come forward, thereby helping out the city's miserable 51 percent closure rate on murders.

[Former homicide department commander W. Louis] Hennessy said he applauded yesterday's announcement. "It shows that now the city is beginning to put some value on these lives that, for years and years, nobody cared about," he said.
Riiiight, I'm gonna disagree. X gets the square. Ding.

If money really is the limiting factor in convincing people to come forward to help solve a murder investigation, that's just sad. It's pretty clear that fear of retribution and lack of police protection is the reason detectives get no witnesses... I doubt the extra money will make much difference.

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