Last weekend, my partner and I were mugged at gunpoint while responding to a call near Dupont Circle. The entire incident lasted under a minute, as I was forced to the ground, handed over my walkie talkie and was patted down.
And yet, when a reporter asked whether I was surprised that this could happen to a DPS officer, I immediately answered: “Not at all.” It was and is so clear to me that I am not an actual cop, that DPS is not an actual police force, and that we are surrounded by a city with actual criminals. While we as officers aren’t often confronted by this stark reality, our complete ineptitude and lack of know-how in the face of true crime is very real.
Year after year, Georgetown DPS, is ranked among the most uneven university forces in the country, breaking up parties an estimated 54 times more than the average college police squad and, yet, just 20% of actual crimes committed against Georgetown students are solved.
I come from a fairly secure campus, but not one which is entirely free from petty crime. And yet I’d venture to guess that our attackers have committed actual crimes I’ve never dreamed of. When I struggled in enforcing the honor code, I had actual law enforcement officers who willingly sat down with me and helped me work through it. When I have a problem, I have countless detectives from the D.C. police department who I can dump the case off to.
What has been most startling to me, even more so than the incident itself, have been the reactions I’ve gotten. I kept hearing people referring to me with the words “Officer,” “Chief” or even “Sir”. While I understand why one might jump to that conclusion about me, I don’t think this is fair.
Not once did my attacker consider me to be an “officer.” I trust that they knew this. I mean seriously, who would rob an actual police officer? Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, employed by one of the safest universities in the country, and act as if I could handle a legit emergency. I mean for fuck’s sake… I do most of my patrolling on a bike.
Jay Gruber is the Chief of Police of Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety
