It seems like the Metropolitan Police Department views the District of Columbia as a sort of Old West town where guns regularly being drawn and bullets flying everywhere are perfectly natural occurrences. In a five-part series of articles this week, The Washington Post documented the “Dodge City” mentality that pervades some members of the city’s police force. The series described officers who shot motorists caught for speeding, shot suspects who were lying prostrate on the ground and fired at moving vehicles – proof that the D.C. police department has a serious problem with trigger-happy officers.

District officers fire their weapons at more than double the rate of police officers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Miami. Almost $8 million has been awarded in the past six months alone in court settlements and judgments of cases involving D.C. police shootings. But in departmental hearings, which are closed to the public, nine out of every 10 shootings are ruled “justified” by MPD officials.

The Post’s statistics are shocking: MPD officers fired their weapons in nearly 500 incidents from 1994 to last May, using more than 2,500 bullets, 45 people were fatally shot and 112 others were wounded. An officer fired more than six rounds in 126 instances and more than 10 rounds in 67 instances.

The shoot-em up attitude does not prevail everywhere in the city, nor does every officer have an itchy trigger finger. Less than 15 percent of MPD officers fired their guns. No woundings occurred west of Rock Creek Park, and most shootings happened in the eastern half of the city.

MPD must take steps to address this staggering level of police shootings. Better training and the weeding out of incompetent officers must be initiated to lower these unacceptable and dangerous rates. It’s time for MPD’s poorly trained officers and negligent procedures to get out of Dodge.