Washington, D.C
Whistleblower claims Special Police Officers are working in DC without licenses
Unlicensed Special Police Officers operating in DC
Are there fake Special Police Officers working in Washington, D.C.? FOX 5’s Stephanie Ramirez has been checking with various officials on the matter after multiple whistleblowers and concerned community members raised these concerns with us.
WASHINGTON – Are there fake Special Police Officers working in Washington, D.C.?
FOX 5 has been checking with various officials on the matter after multiple whistleblowers and concerned community members raised these concerns with FOX 5.
One whistleblower who asked not to be identified, spoke on camera, alleging they were hired to work security at the Columbia Heights Village apartment complex, and named two companies that are not legally licensed to operate in the District.
The whistleblower named one company as “Off Duty Protection,” claiming this company was an alleged subsidiary of “USEA Protective Services, LLC.” The whistleblower says they left after learning of alleged legal issues.
This whistleblower is an actual licensed SPO, who claims one of the owners was working as an armed SPO at the Columbia Height Village apartment complex and others without a legal SPO license.
“I saw a lot of unethical processes or procedures such as the use of excessive force – essentially kidnapping. Because if someone is not a law enforcement officer, and they’re processing arresting people, that is kidnapping,” the whistleblower said.
Columbia Heights Village apartment complex in Washington, D.C.
In the District, special police officers are essentially private officers hired to work security. They have similar powers to D.C. police, but those powers normally only extend to the property they’re protecting.
When FOX 5 reached out to management offices for the Columbia Heights Village apartment complex regarding the claims against both companies, we received this response from Spokesperson Ed Cafasso via email:
“Columbia Heights Village became aware of the company’s licensing issues on April 23, 2024. Their contract to provide security to the community was terminated the next day, on April 24, 2024. Their contract to provide security on the property began November 20, 2023.”
Cafasso would not name the company Columbia Heights Village held the contract with. He did confirm that a fake insurance certificate was used to obtain the contract and that they are currently working with a new security company, now identified as, PChange Protective Services.
The whistleblower who went on record told FOX 5 they filed claims with the DC Office of the Attorney General, the FTC, and the Department of Labor – also alleging that more than one SPO performed the security work but was not paid for their services.
D.C. police tell FOX 5 they are still investigating serious allegations made.
USEA Protective Services, LLC last held a license with D.C. in 2017, according to a city license search.
The city’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection Spokesperson Charles Basham III wrote in one of multiple emails previously sent to FOX 5:
“The Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) aims to ensure all business entities in the District maintain accurate and up-to-date licenses. Off Duty Protection is currently not a registered or licensed agency in the District. On June 6, 2024, a complaint concerning Off Duty Protection was lodged with our agency; our policy is not to comment on matters under review.”
Since airing a September 27th report, FOX 5 was contacted by the man who claims to be the owner of “Off Duty Protection.” He says his company was never affiliated with USEA’s contract and is denying having any part with any of the allegations made involving Columbia Heights Village or their security contact.
John Ayala, owner of Archangel Security and Training.
Separately, FOX 5 asked John Ayala, a long-time licensed D.C. SPO license and conceal carry instructor for the city, about the matter regarding concerns raised.
Ayala responded that he was not surprised.
Ayala owns his own security company, Archangel Security and Training.
He said there are likely more SPOs than current police officers working in D.C. and that he feels there needs to be more individual responsibility.
“That’s concerning because if they go out here and make an arrest and hurt somebody, then the city might even get sued, besides that person. So we have to, the companies themselves have to make sure if they’re going to hire people, they have to make sure they’re fully licensed. You can’t just bring them in because they want a body – and that’s what happens a lot of time,” Ayala said in part of his conversation with FOX 5.
Ayala says he warns his students to stay away from any security companies that require the SPO to have their own (personal) firearm because that’s not allowed in D.C.
Anyone can look up a license status on the District’s professional license search page here.
Whether there are any safeguards to prevent non-licensed contracts or non-licensed SPOs from operating, FOX 5 learned MPD has a very small branch that responds to SPO matters, when requested to do so. That branch is called the Security Officers Management Branch or SOMB.
D.C. police told FOX 5 there’s no real entity that patrols these issues – and that this is something they’re now working on with the city’s licensing department as the investigation into what happened at the Columbia Heights Village apartment complex continues.
This is a developing story. Check back with FOX 5 for updates.
Washington, D.C
Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
Washington, D.C
Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos
Washington, D.C. (7News) — Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.
Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.
Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.
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You can learn more and book your table here.
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