Beloved Offi­cer Moved After 11 Years
By Nick Marell • GW Hatchet Reporter

Uni­ver­sity and local lead­ers banded together this week to protest a deci­sion to trans­fer Lt. Phillip Lan­ciano — the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Police Depart­ment offi­cer assigned to the Foggy Bot­tom area — to another police district.

Lan­ciano served as a local Police Ser­vice Area lieu­tenant, work­ing fre­quently with com­mu­nity mem­bers and the Uni­ver­sity to alle­vi­ate crime in the area. GW’s Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­nity Rela­tions office, the local Advi­sory Neigh­bor­hood Com­mis­sion and the Foggy Bot­tom Asso­ci­a­tion drafted let­ters to MPD Chief of Police Cathy Lanier, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and D.C. Coun­cil­man Jack Evans, D-Ward 2, ask­ing that they rein­state Lan­ciano to his post in the 2nd Dis­trict, where he has served for the past 11 years.

“Every­body agrees — the com­mu­nity, the Uni­ver­sity, every­body,” ANC Com­mis­sioner Asher Cor­son said. “I hope this is one of those times when they try to make every­one happy instead of mak­ing every­body angry.”

While on vaca­tion with his fam­ily in Florida last week, Lan­ciano was noti­fied via e-mail that he would be trans­ferred from the 2nd Dis­trict to the 6th Dis­trict in South­east D.C. effec­tive imme­di­ately upon his return.

“We’re very upset about it and we really think it is the wrong deci­sion and that it has not been han­dled well,” said FBA Pres­i­dent Joy Howell.

Uni­ver­sity Police Depart­ment Chief Dolores Stafford also said she was dis­ap­pointed with MPD’s decision.

“The rela­tion­ships that he has built over the years at GW and in the com­mu­nity have been invalu­able to this PSA,” she said.

It is the sec­ond per­son­nel shake-up in the 2nd Dis­trict this week, after Dis­trict Com­man­der Mark Carter was replaced by MPD Inspec­tor Matthew Klein after less than a year on the job.

MPD offi­cials have yet to release an offi­cial expla­na­tion behind Lanciano’s trans­fer or the other shake-ups in the 2nd District.

One MPD offi­cer, who said he knew Lan­ciano, said the lieu­tenant is a vic­tim of a per­sonal vendetta from MPD.

“You have got to piss some­one off to get trans­ferred to the 6th Dis­trict in South­east — the mur­der cap­i­tal of the nation,” said the offi­cer, who spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymity.

Cor­son and How­ell said one pos­si­ble rea­son for the trans­fer was because Lanciano’s expe­ri­ence in Foggy Bot­tom could be an asset in the 6th Dis­trict. How­ell said a recent increase in crime in the 2nd Dis­trict could be another expla­na­tion for his relocation.

Lan­ciano is still on vaca­tion and was unavail­able for a com­ment. His replace­ment, Lt. Ale­sia Wheeler-Moore, also could not be reached for comment.