What Happened to Inspector Edward Delgado?
Hmmm…. interesting. I only hope that Edward Delgado, former inspector in the MPD Third District, wasn’t punished for proactive action that got much-need results in Columbia Heights earlier this year. But, I wouldn’t want to bet he wasn’t. I will let neighborhood blogger New Columbia Heights tell the story, but I will add that I don’t like what I read and what I suspect. From New Columbia Heights:
Turnover and controversy with neighborhood MPD officials. Looks like there’s something afoot with MPD’s officials in the Third District Substation, which covers the Columbia Heights area – a couple days ago, there was a message on the Substation listserve welcoming a new commander, Inspector Jacob Kishter. The message had no mention of very popular Inspector Edward Delgado, and shortly afterwards a couple of people asked what happened to him.
Turns out, Delgado was demoted and reassigned to the very violent 7th District, apparently stemming from his complaints about DC’s juvenile justice system — in particular, MPD in Columbia Heights had three times arrested a teenager who had committed 21 robberies, and each time he was released by the Attorney General’s office, only to commit more robberies. A frustrated Delgado urged citizens to email DC Attorney General Peter Nickles, and Nickles didn’t like that at all – he refused to read the emails and complained about Delgado’s response. The robbery suspect kid was later released again but I think he was recaptured.
According to the Examiner’s story, Kishter was basically demoted to the Substation also — he was the 2nd highest officer in the Internal Affairs bureau, but recently a scandal came up about officers there filing false overtime reports — an investigation accused “upper levels of the executive command staff” that had “chosen to ignore and disregard this blatant conduct.”
Pretty ridiculous on a number of levels. Delgado was a respected and well-liked officer, he went to many local meetings, posted many times on the listserve and responded to citizen questions quickly. In one example, he disproved the rumor that someone was mugged in the Target parking garage.
Nickles’s actions are pretty petty too – the man is a public official, but won’t read emails from citizens? And then the 3D Substation gets an officer who was demoted. It’s possible that Inspector Kishter will do a good job, but the whole situation is fishy.
Yes, I hope the mayor’s Omnibus Crime Bill is passed–I think the police need the tools that the legislation would give them–but let’s try to give officers like Delgado some support while we’re at it. I met Delgado briefly on a couple ofoccasions at Borderstan Neighors meetings; my impression was that of an officer who was more interested in doing something than attending meetings and talking about doing something.
