Bill Myers, The Examiner
2008-05-10 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

 Five months before a woman hanged herself in a D.C. police cell this week, an internal review warned authorities that the cell blocks weren't properly staffed and monitored, The Examiner has learned.

In a memo dated Jan. 14 and labeled "Station Deficiencies," Sgt. Miriam D. Rayfield warned her superiors that the cell block in the Fourth District police station suffered from "inadequate staffing," poor training and a broken-down camera system.

"The cameras in cell block #2, 4, 5 and 7 are broken," Rayfield wrote. "The video machine that records the cameras actions hasn't worked in four months."

It's not clear Rayfield's warnings were ever taken up by police brass. Fourth District Cmdr. Linda Brown refused to comment Friday.

But the memo sheds an eerie light on the suicide of Shantee Parker, 32, who hanged herself with a pair of pants while locked up on an assault charge early Tuesday. The camera in Parker's cell block was broken.

District Councilman Phil Mendelson, D-at large, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said he's troubled by department's apparent ignorance of the Jan. 14 memo.

"That should have been addressed," Mendelson told The Examiner. "They need to get that stuff fixed."

Kristopher K. Baumann, chair of the police union, said the rank-and-file officers have been warning the brass about deteriorating conditions in police buildings for years.

"They've known about these problems ... and they've done nothing," he said. "It's unacceptable that it took a suicide to bring these problems to light."

A police source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the cell block was short-staffed because the regular officers who were supposed to be watching Parker had worked overtime the previous weekend in another round of Chief Cathy Lanier's controversial "All Hands on Deck" efforts.

Critics of All Hands have blasted it as a publicity stunt that drains police stations of their staff during the violent workweek. On Halloween the department was short-handed because of an All Hands weekend. That night, 10 people were shot - one of them fatally.

bmyers@dcexaminer.com