who watches the watchmen?

A group of high ranking Washington, D.C., police officers, including the current chief, shielded 21 officers from termination for criminal misconduct, according to an investigation conducted by Reveal and WAMU/DCist.

Reveal‘s report is based on internal documents obtained from a ransomware attack that, according to The Associated Press, targeted D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department in April.

According to those documents, between 2009 and 2019, the MPD’s Disciplinary Review Division sought termination for at least 24 officers accused of criminal misconduct. In all but three of those cases, an “Adverse Action Panel” made up of three high-ranking officers, made sure the accused officers kept their jobs. One member of that panel, Robert J. Contee, has served as chief of the MPD since the beginning of 2021.

Reveal‘s report claims that the documents describe how Officer Ronald Faunteroy, a 20-year veteran of the force according to OpenPayrolls.com, solicited sex from a pair of D.C. prostitutes, threatened them with his department-issue Glock, and then lied about it to the internal affairs agent who questioned him. Eventually, though, Faunteroy admitted to all of it, but instead of being fired, he was merely demoted. The Adverse Action Panel had saved his job. He has since been promoted back to his original position.

The report also claims that, of seven police officers slated for termination due to domestic abuse, the panel prevented six of them from being fired.

According to Reveal, neither Contee nor the MPD responded to requests for comment.