Description

On May 2nd of this year I was robbed of my iPad 2 at a Suitland area McDonalds. What occurred minutes after the robbery and in the ensuing two months after it, is an example of the lack of professionalism and competence on the part of the Prince George's County Police department.

A few highlights:

The responding officer repeatedly refused to enter the restaurant and question individuals that were involved in the robbery. He refused to enter the McDonalds and view the security tape that captured the robbery on video. The manager had even prepared it for him to look at.

The officer had me stand in the parking lot while he sat in his cruiser for twenty minutes and took my statement.

After the robbery, I became angry at the response of this officer and drove to the Division III headquarters in Landover. I wanted to speak with a supervising officer. Of course there was no one present at three in the afternoon to speak with me. I was told a Corporal Savage would contact me. Later that day he did.  His responses to me were inane and incredulous. After I explained in detail about the robbery and how his officer refused to enter the McDonalds, he told me I hadn't given the responding officer enough information to make him enter the restaurant. I told the Corporal I had asked his officer multiple times to please question the individuals still in the McDonalds and look at the security tape. He had repeatedly refused.

When he realized that his trying to blame me for his officer not going into the McDonalds, he asked me if I knew how many times the PG County Police had been sued for racial profiling. I told him I did not and how did this have anything to do with a police officer questioning people in a restaurant that were involved in a robbery, or at the very least, were witnesses?  Corporal Savage then asked me if was willing to go to court with his officer if he was accused of racial profiling. Now the conversation was becoming bizarre. I asked him how could there be racial profiling if he just questioned witnesses to a crime?  He didn't answer.

I told the Corporal that this was a glaring example of the incompetence of the PG  County Police. The responding officer doesn't do his job and you try to cover for him with an excuse of racial profiling.

Later that week I went and met with the manager of the McDonalds. He looked at the security tape and told me that the individuals I suspected were involved in the robbery actually were. They had let the robber into the McDonalds through a locked door. Everything I had told the responding officer had happened was right on the tape. In 5 days not one detective from the police department had come to view the tape or obtain a copy of it. I called the police from the McDonalds and told them the tape was there and to please pick it up. After two hours of waiting, I left. They did pick up the tape later that day.

A week later I was contacted by a detective and met with him at District III headquarters. He needed my statement and I told him I would prefer to type it and bring it to him the next day. I asked if I could view the security tape and he agreed. When I saw the tape, it was exactly what had occurred at the McDonalds and exactly what I had told the responding officer.

Now comes the good part; the detective knows one of the guys involved in the robbery. He knows him!  

It's been two months since the robbery and when I try and obtain an update from the police, I'm told they are still working the case.

I have been very patient through all of this, but I feel now is the time to let the public know that the police will not assist a citizen that has been robbed, won't question witnesses to a crime, won't view a security tape showing the robbery and won't arrest one of the perpetrators, even when they know him!

I asked the detective what more a citizen could do to help solve a robbery. I had given them everything they needed to make an arrest and they did nothing with it.    

Maybe I needed to go find the person involved in the robbery that the detective knows and give him a ride to District III for questioning. The detective and the police have no intention of solving this case, regardless of the evidence and information provided to them.

I have all of the information concerning the responding officer, the Corporal and the detective if you are interested in pursuing this story of the total incompetence of the Prince George's County Police Department.

Sincerely,

Jon Titman