Nearly one out of every five D.C. police officers hasn’t been through legally mandated training in basic lifesaving skills, The Examiner has learned.
City law requires every officer to attend three days of training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and basic first aid every calendar year, but about 680 officers still haven’t been trained from 2008, internal documents obtained by The Examiner show. That’s about 17 percent of the force.
Inspector Victor Brito, who heads the D.C. police academy, acknowledged “A little bit more than 600 officers … haven’t completed training.
“We’ve had for many years [where] there have been training delays,” Brito said. “All training is important, we believe.”
D.C. police are the first line of defense for the nation’s capital, a city whose leaders are trying to reassure millions of tourists that they’re in safe hands after a gunman opened fire at the Holocaust Museum this week. After Wednesday’s shooting, an off-duty D.C. police officer was one of the first dispatched to the scene — to administer first aid.
The backlog not only puts the department on the wrong side of the law, but is forcing Chief Cathy Lanier to rush the remaining hundreds through training before the annual summer surge in violent crimes. The remaining officers will be trained in two shifts every day, and the training won’t be finished until at least July 2.
“During the most violent time of the year, 20 percent of the people are going to be in training,” police union Chairman Kris Baumann said. “That’s a public safety issue and that’s bad management.”
Baumann said the required training also includes updates on the criminal code, as well as training in civil rights law.
Lanier was asked about the backlog of untrained officers on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t think there would be any,” she said. “Any officer that didn’t go to firearms training or stuff like that would be suspended.”
The family of slain journalist David Rosenbaum sued the District in 2006 alleging that the city was sending paramedics, firefighters and cops onto the street without basic training. The city settled by promising to revamp its training of “first responders.”
Staff Writer Freeman Klopott contributed to this report.
Training days
680 officers will have to undergo intense retraining by July 2:
» Three days of training;
» Two shifts per day;
» At least 16,320 man hours lost to training in the month.
