Days after an Internal Affairs Division (IAD) agent called News4 asking for names of confidential sources, D.C. police issued a division order to all Internal Affairs investigators to back off the practice.
In the order, IAD Commander John Knutsen told all members of the IAD: “The IAD member shall not contact nor attempt to interview the media representative in order to identify the individual (Source) that provided the unauthorized information to the news media.”
The directive was issued Aug. 19. That morning, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith told News4 a junior investigator made the decision on his own to call a reporter and ask for sources.
“That is something we should not do,” Smith said. “They should never do that ... You should not see that happen again.”
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In an Aug. 15 call to the News4 I-Team, an Internal Affairs agent asked reporter Ted Oberg what internal police documents he received and from whom. The documents in question revealed unanswered 911 calls from a family of an unresponsive 5-month-old child during one of D.C.’s 911 outages. That child later died. It is unclear if a faster 911 response would have changed that outcome.
At the time, the official D.C. timeline did not include the unanswered calls. D.C. leadership has since acknowledged the family placed calls to 911 that were not answered by call takers.
The directive does leave room to call journalists in a criminal case after getting written permission from police leadership.
“Investigations of a criminal matter and/or in instances in which an interview of a media representative is necessary in order to dispose of a case, the IAD member shall request in writing and through the chain of command, permission from the Assistant Chief, Internal Affairs Bureau, to interview the media representative. The IAD member shall only contact and interview the media representative with written approval from the Assistant Chief, Internal Affairs Bureau. If contact with a media representative is approved, the media representative shall not be compelled to provide an interview or disclose a source.”
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