The Inaugural Parade has seen more than its fair share of controversy over the last few years. In 2001, a few protesters scuffled with police, resulting in six arrests. In 2005, D.C. police were accused by the ACLU of making false arrests and indiscriminately using pepper spray during the inauguration festivities. This past March, a federal court ruled that the park service had violated the First Amendment by preventing war protesters from getting near the......

The Associated Press is reporting that D.C. Police surrounded a home near the 1800 block of Tubman Ave. SE this morning in an attempt to apprehend two carjacking suspects. Officers said they pulled over a stolen vehicle near the 1700 block of Alabama Avenue SE at about 3:30 a.m. this morning, but the two occupants drove off, eventually getting out and running into a nearby home. The stolen vehicle was taken during an armed carjacking......

...oh wait, they actually just spied on peaceful anti-war and anti-death penalty activists. The Post is reporting today that the Maryland State Police actively infiltrated meetings and demonstrations held by war and death penalty protesters during the administration of Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R). The kicker? "The surveillance continued even though the logs contained no reports of illegal activity and consistently indicated that the activists were not planning violent protests." And then there's this:A well-known antiwar......

WTOP's Mark Segraves discovered that a veteran MPD officer is being investigated for fraud due to allegedly being paid $200,000 in improper overtime. The officer had to hand in her badge and gun and has been reassigned to desk duty during the investigation, but she's still on the payroll. The investigation into her time sheets has been handed over to the U.S. Attorney's office. This story reminds us that excessive overtime has long been a......

AlertDC sent out word at 4:04 p.m. of some undefined "MPD activity" going down at 3460 14th St. NW. 14th St. is shut down from Monroe St. to Spring Rd. NW. From the looks of the alert it sounds like it may be a suspicious package -- EOD, or Explosive Ordinance Disposal, is also on the scene, as well as DDOT's Roadway Operations Patrol. We're trying to get more details, will update when we do.......

This really smells like it is going to get so much worse. The death of Ronnie White, the 19-year-old man who was arrested over the weekend on charges that he murdered a Prince George's County police officer, has been ruled a homicide. White appears to have been strangled to death while in custody in a county jail -- he had two broken bones in his neck and medical examiners have determined he died from asphyxiation,......

Residents watch the police checkpoint in D.C.'s Trinidad neighborhood on Saturday, June 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) We balked at the initial news that the Metropolitan Police Department planned to throw up barriers and checkpoints in certain D.C. neighborhoods experiencing excessive violent crime. Later, when we learned the details of the first case, the week-long checkpoint that was established in Trinidad, the MPD's plan appeared to be both constitutionally dubious and potentially not......

Can you say Police State? The Examiner has the scoop on a controversial new program announced today that would create so-called "Neighborhood Safety Zones" which would serve to partially seal off certain parts of the city. D.C. Police would set-up checkpoints in targeted areas, demand to see ID and refuse admittance to people who don't live there, work there or have a “legitimate reason” to be there. Wow. Just, wow. Some of the words used......

WTOP's Mark Segraves has the scoop that interim D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has advised Police Chief Cathy Lanier that she may legally fire the 17 officers (though Segraves now says it was 20 officers -- that's first time we've seen that number) she was forced to rehire. Lanier has reportedly already begun the process of terminating the officers again, who were originally fired for violations ranging from lying to get time off to posting......

Earlier this week the Metropolitan Police Department announced its latest phone number that might help it solve crime: 1-888-919-CRIME is a toll free tip line that will be staffed by detectives around the clock. The new number should not be confused with 311 or 911, however, which are of course already fairly confusing. The MPD says this new number should be used to make anonymous tips to the police about homicides, gangs, guns, or other......

Federal prosecutors announced today that no charges will be filed against the two off-duty D.C. police officers who were involved in the fatal shooting of 14-year-old DeOnté Rawlings on Sept. 17, 2007. Officers James Haskel and Anthony Clay were riding in Haskel's SUV on the night of the killing, looking for a minibike stolen from Haskel's garage in Southeast. The officers, who were off-duty and not in uniform, said they found Rawlings on the bike,......

The Washington Times has the story this morning on how the District government is handing over the keys to a network of 5,200 closed-circuit cameras to the Metropolitan Police Department. The cameras are normally used to monitor traffic, schools and public housing, and in addition to the 92 crime cameras police already monitor in high-crime neighborhoods, will give D.C. one of the largest surveillance networks of any major city in the United States. The initiative,......

The Post is reporting that an off-duty Metropolitan Police officer shot a man who was attempting to rob him at a gas station in Northeast early this morning. A police spokesperson told the paper the shooting took place at around 12:30 a.m. at 905 Brentwood Rd. NE, though it seems like the gas station in question actually has to be the Lowest Price Gas Station at 925 Brentwood Rd. NE, as no gas station appears......

A while back, Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced she wanted to start a book club of sorts, and now, the date of the book club discussion has been finalized. On Thursday, May 1, at a location yet to be determined, the Chief will host a public discussion of pop-sociology books The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Sadly, the invitation doesn't make it seem like the Chief necessarily wants to keep the book......

The Metropolitan Police Department has recovered a historic booking log that is one of the first written records of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Call Nicholas Cage, and alert the Masons! Could this be a real live Book of Secrets? From the Examiner:Local lore has it that in the 1960s or ’70s, someone found the book in a police trash bin with other discarded files. The book circulated among retired police officers for years,......

You might be able to finally use your non-Verizon cell phone in Metro tunnels. Just don't hold your breath. Metro's finance board voted and gave the OK on a preliminary measure to solicit proposals for lining all stations and underground tracks with a wireless system that would allow for customers to use their phones underground, regardless of carrier. The new system would also provide wireless internet and fix Metro's broken radio system - which they've......

We mentioned it earlier today, but it's worth discussing further -- the District's crime cameras. According to the Post, a study by D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier released to the D.C. Council argues that the city's 73 crime cameras have helped lower violent crime in the areas where they have been installed: The report, prepared for the D.C. Council by the office of Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier, says violent crime increased about 1 percent......

Rodell Alton Colton couldn't have imagined his birthday would end up like this. According to a WTOP report, Colton, who just turned 72, had a minor fender-bender in a convenience store parking lot in New Carrolton, Md. on his birthday. As if that wasn't a big enough bummer, when police responded they discovered he was driving on a suspended license, and a subsequent search of his car turned up quite the payload: Police ordered him......

Two interesting stories today on the current state of the Metropolitan Police Department. The Washington Times reports that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier says she's going to stick with her All Hands on Deck policing strategy, which periodically puts every officer on duty over the course of a weekend. There were five All Hands on Deck weekends in 2007, and Lanier said she would continue them until the department can hire more officers. Lanier told the......

It wasn't a very merry Christmas for Michel Morauw, the manager of the Park Hyatt Washington Hotel. NBC4 reports that an MPD officer shot and killed Morauw's dog on Monday in a small park adjacent to Rock Creek Park at 24th and N Streets NW. The officer reportedly said he was on foot patrol and entered the park "when an unleashed dog attacked him." The officer fired his gun at the dog, and the dog......

Good morning, Washington. If you experienced a power outage at some point on Sunday, you were not alone. Strong winds averaging close to 40 mph knocked out power to as many as 100,000 customers across the metro area yesterday. While not much ice or snow ever materialized during the weekend's storm, Sunday's chilly wind made for an uncomfortable time walking through downtown D.C. for many holiday shoppers -- we spotted at least one woman near......

>> Three students at a controversial Massachusetts clinic where D.C. special education students have been farmed out for years were mistakenly subjected to electric shock treatments as part of a prank. [Examiner] >> A woman was shot outside the Brightwood Supermarket on the 100 block of Kennedy Street NW. Police said she was a bystander caught in a drive-by shooting. [NBC4] >> "Oh yeah, Linden would kill me if I didn't add that DDOT......

A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with running down MPD bicycle officer Brian Bobick with a stolen limousine on Thursday. The Post is reporting that Bobick, 30, remains in critical but stable condition after being struck by the limo on the 4200 block of Ord St. NE, and that he pushed his partner out of harm's way just in time. More disturbing is a report from WTOP's Mark Seagraves that the arrested teenager who......

This WJLA story, about a group of residents on the 1300 block of Quincy Street NW who all got parking tickets for street cleaning violations last week, would be just a normal amount of frustrating, instead of blood-boilingly infuriating, were it not for this little nugget:Pender went to the 4th district police headquarters to find our why he and his neighbors got tickets anyway. "I talked to him and said I got a ticket for......

Good morning, Washington. Are ya ready for some embezzlement scandal news? Of course you are! This morning's update comes not from the embattled Office of Tax and Revenue, but rather from the D.C. Public Schools front office, as the Examiner reports that Eugene Smith, the former director of internal audits for DCPS, entered a guilty plea yesterday to charges of stealing nearly $50,000 from a charter school account. Smith was fired by the school system......

>> Oh noes! The Ron Paul blimp launch was delayed, and rescheduled for its D.C. appearance on Wednesday at 3 p.m. [via Wonkette] >> D.C.'s Beacon House Falcons of Edgewood Terrace won Pop Warner Football’s Pee Wee Division I Super Bowl championship on Saturday. [Notions Capital] >> Former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey no longer thinks handgun bans are such a good idea now that he works for a city that doesn't have one.......

Though it is District law that cars must stop for pedestrians in every crosswalk, let's be honest -- very few actually do so. When I choose to walk to work, I'm often left to navigate the harrowing crosswalk at Connecticut Avenue and Wyoming Avenue NW, where even a sign reminding drivers of their responsibility to stop is regularly (and at high-speed) ignored. Council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) is hoping to change that. Cheh's office......

Last night, Fox 5 reported on an alarming attack of a gay man by six or seven men on the Metro. "Nathaniel," as he's referred to in the report, was riding alone on a train Friday night. As the doors closed at Metro Center, the group surrounded and beat Nathaniel, kicking him as he fell to the floor and yelling "faggot". Nathaniel managed to get off the train at the Smithsonian station, and he ran......

The Holiday season is in full swing in NYC, with holiday lights in Brooklyn, a giant snow globe in Bryan Park and Chanukah specials for ham. One citizen decided to go vigilante on annoying car alarms, a murder suspect used a fake Asian accent on the stand and a video of a man being beaten up by teenage girls on a subway shocked the city. And we interviewed soon-to-be-leaving-Gawker editor Choire Sicha, who said,......

We've reached another Friday, D.C., but if those light flurries that accompanied you on your way into work this morning gave you visions of a leisurely Saturday snowball fight, you'll likely end up disappointed. Very little accumulation is expected from these flakes, and the weekend will see temperatures back in the upper 40s, with a possibility of some light rain on Saturday morning, according to CapitalWeather.com. If this update doesn't satisfy your weather nerd urges,......