Before GW Police Department Chief James Tate resigned and GW launched an external investigation into the department this month, officers had internally reported gun safety violations, insufficient training and workplace culture concerns for more than a year — claims they said officials didn’t take seriously until The Hatchet published their allegations.
Former GWPD officers said that starting in September 2023, they relayed their concerns to Vice President for Safety and Operations Baxter Goodly and former Chief Administration Officer Sharon Paulsen and submitted human resources reports that HR representatives said they shared with Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes. But after the officers filed the reports and participated in an HR investigation months before The Hatchet’s reporting, HR representatives “ghosted” them and officials didn’t implement changes they requested, like bolstered training and a reevaluation of GWPD’s leadership, the former officers said.
A Hatchet investigation last month found that two firearms carried by the force’s top two officers were unregistered in D.C. during the first month of GW’s arming rollout and Tate “continuously” stored his loaded firearm in violation of GWPD’s storage procedures. Former officers also claimed that insufficient firearms training created a workplace culture over the last year that sparked high staff turnover.
“Nothing in that department has gotten better,” said Chris Hunsicker, a former lieutenant who worked for GWPD for 11 years before leaving in August.
The University cycled through GWPD’s executive leadership amid the internal disarray. Paulsen left her position around December 2023 and Goodly took over on Jan. 1, 2024. Fernandes oversaw the department during the transition period, former officers said.
University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said GW has managed employee concerns related to GWPD in compliance with the University’s internal policies and procedures. She said officials do not comment on individual employee “leave patterns” and that employment-related complaints are reviewed through the Employee Relations Complaint Process.
She said details of such complaints are treated as confidential and discussed only with “appropriate staff and managers as necessary” to incentivize employees sharing complaints with GW.
“The University remains committed to fostering a work environment in which all individuals are treated with professionalism and in compliance with GW’s internal policies and procedures,” McClendon said in an email.
Based on allegations from former officers and obtained emails and documents, The Hatchet compiled a timeline of officers’ reports to officials about their safety concerns — which they said didn’t trigger departmental improvements.
August 2022: Officer sounds first alarm
Of the emails and HR reports from former GWPD officers to officials and HR representatives that The Hatchet obtained, the first report of department turmoil was an email sent by former Captain of Administration Steve Booker to former interim University President Mark Wrighton on Aug. 15, 2022.
In his email to the former president, Booker wrote that since he began at GWPD in May 2021 — more than a year after officials hired Tate — the department’s turnover rate had been “staggering,” with 12 sergeants, three lieutenants and three captains leaving the department in about a year by resignation or termination.
Booker attributed the mass departures to low department morale and Tate’s leadership style, which made officers “fear him.”
GWPD would “eventually fail the University when it needs proper leadership the most,” Booker wrote in his email to Wrighton.
“I truly believe this is an EEO and HR responsibility and believe both offices will interview, investigate, and discover the truths I’ve shared with each of you to determine the best direction moving forward,” Booker wrote.
The email thread doesn’t include a response from Wrighton. McClendon declined to say if Wrighton or another GW official responded to Booker or escalated his concerns. Two former officers said officials didn’t reach out to officers after his email.
Booker left GWPD later that month.
September – October 2023: Officers disclose safety concerns to HR
Former Captain of Operations Gabe Mullinax, who left GWPD in April, said he first contacted HR and spoke with a representative from the office on the phone on Sept. 27.
In the conversation, he disclosed that the same day, he had discovered the firearms he and Tate carried for almost a month on campus had never been registered in D.C.
Mullinax wrote in an HR report — also filed on Sept. 27 — that he didn’t know the guns he and Tate carried were unregistered in D.C. He wrote that he had two conversations with Tate earlier that month asking about the two guns’ registration and that Tate said they were “good to go.”
Mullinax said the HR representative promised during the phone call to immediately escalate the complaint to the Office of the General Counsel without mentioning his name because HR granted him whistleblower protections under GW’s non-retaliation policy.
He said Tate told him later that day that he would “call in some favors” to get the guns registered quickly. The two weapons were registered with the Metropolitan Police Department two days later, according to firearms registration certifications obtained by The Hatchet.
The same HR representative then emailed Mullinax on Oct. 2, asking that he participate in an HR investigation into GWPD, according to an email thread obtained by The Hatchet.
Mullinax and the representative scheduled an in-person meeting for Oct. 5. He also gave the representative the names of six supervisory officers so the employee could meet with them separately for the investigation, according to another email exchange between Mullinax and the HR representative.
Mullinax said he “unloaded on everything” during the meeting with the representative, including his grievances about the unregistered firearms, low department morale and a lack of sufficient training for officers.
The HR representative met once with each of the six officers and one other GWPD employee, Mullinax said. Four of the officers and the employee, who has since left, confirmed they were interviewed.
Two of the interviewed officers — Hunsicker and former Sergeant Ryan Monteiro, who left in May — said they reported inadequate firearm training, a poor work culture and potential issues with gun registration in their meetings with HR in early October 2023.
The former GWPD employee, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from GW, said they specifically requested in his HR meeting that officials consider firing Tate because of his treatment of police supervisors and other employees.
The former employee recalled the HR representative responding to this suggestion by saying “‘We’re not looking to end anybody’s career here, we just want to make things better” without specifying how they planned to mitigate the departmental issues that the officers raised.
On Oct. 6, the HR representative scheduled another in-person meeting with Mullinax for Oct. 12, according to the same email thread. Mullinax said the meeting was a “closure interview” after the HR representative spoke with other officers, and he reiterated concerns that he and other officers discussed in previous meetings.
Tate went on leave for about 10 days in mid-October, after officers met with HR representatives, Mullinax said. He said it was unclear to officers at the time if Tate’s leave was related to their reports.
Mullinax said Paulsen, who was overseeing GWPD at the time, asked him to meet with her on Oct. 23, which he said was to discuss his leadership in Tate’s absence, particularly because it fell at a time when protests roiled campus at the onset of the war in Gaza.
At the meeting, Paulsen asked Mullinax if there were any issues within GWPD, and he responded by describing issues with the lack of training during the arming process and a “mismatch” between internal departmental functions and what officials advertised to the community, Mullinax said.
Mullinax said Paulsen seemed “pretty surprised” to hear of his concerns. He did not tell her about his HR reports or the HR investigation because the HR representative instructed officers not to discuss them with anybody, he said.
On Oct. 17, Mullinax sent a text to the HR representative, which The Hatchet obtained, stating that he was receiving “nervous inquiries” about the HR investigation from the officers who were interviewed.
“Most don’t think this will change anything and are discussing their exit strategies,” Mullinax’s text reads. “I would love to prevent that if possible. Might you have some guidance?”
The HR representative texted back that day, telling Mullinax to ask “the staff to give us a little time.” The HR representative said the department was “working on changes” and that he would see “the 1st change” in a few weeks, around November that year.
“We understand the severity of this situation, but we have to be extremely careful to not IDENTIFY anyone in our report,” the HR representative texted Mullinax.
McClendon, the University spokesperson, declined to say what change the HR representative was referring to and if HR or other officials implemented it.
Officers said after the round of HR interviews in October, they didn’t hear from HR representatives.
“We got ghosted,” Mullinax said.
After officials armed Tate and Mullinax in late August 2023, they delayed the second round of arming from late September 2023 to February, when they armed five additional officers. Tate said in April that the delay was because the department “didn’t want to rush things,” especially as the frequency of campus protests rose.
Goodly, who now oversees GWPD, said earlier this month that officials “investigated, addressed and resolved” prior complaints “raised” during the first phase of arming before officials shifted to phase two in February.
The University, which published a release at every stage in the arming process, didn’t put out an update about the arming between September and February.
Earlier this month, Goodly declined to say if officers’ HR reports impacted the timeline of the arming rollout. He also declined to say if officials received or followed up on any of the former officers’ reports or if officials are still examining the reports.
December 2023: Officers press for HR response as alleged safety violations mount
After months of not hearing from HR or seeing department changes following HR interviews, Mullinax said he sent an email to the HR representative on Dec. 8, 2023, with an attached document obtained by The Hatchet that stated his intent to resign from GWPD in June 2024.
In the document, he cited an inability to adequately train officers with the new virtual reality simulator because Tate wanted to “showcase” it before permitting Mullinax to use the simulator.
“Instead of slowly improving after HR interviewed the administrative and command staff, the atmosphere has become overwhelmingly even more negative and uncomfortable,” Mullinax’s document states, which he said served as an update on the status of GWPD.
He wrote that GWPD had the potential to be a nationally recognized police agency regarding its training and modern procedures, and that when he was hired, he’d hoped the department could become an example of how community policing should be done — with accountability, communication, transparency and collaboration.
“Instead, we are forced to buy pretty vehicles, unnecessary electric motorcycles, new badges, staff locations during the least dangerous times of the day to ‘look present,’ and we aren’t allowed to even train officers in our new simulator until [Tate] can ‘showcase it’….all to fool the administration into thinking we have competencies covered,” Mullinax wrote in the document sent to HR. “We absolutely do not. [Tate’s] leadership makes this campus less safe.”
Monteiro and former Lieutenant Sean Brown, who were copied on the email, replied privately to Mullinax. In the emails obtained by The Hatchet, Monteiro said he thought officials would make changes in the department after the October HR meetings. Brown said he planned to reach out again to HR but decided it would not be worth his time since he had already detailed training and workplace issues without seeing change or follow-up.
“He hired all of the police officers so he could tout our experience and training,” Brown said in his reply to Mullinax. “Every single training and experience notch I have is pre-GWPD, I have [been] denied any real training while working for this police chief. I am sickened by this!”
The same day, the HR representative replied to Mullinax, saying that HR would “definitely look into” the allegations in Mullinax’s document.
Mullinax emailed a second report to the HR representative on Dec. 19, stating that Tate “routinely” stored his firearm in GW’s armory while it was still loaded, which the report says is a violation of the department’s armory and safety policies.
The email also attached GWPD’s firearm policy documents, which outline that officers are required to store their firearms empty with the magazine separated, according to Mullinax. GWPD doesn’t publicize its armory safety policies.
Mullinax said in the Dec. 19 HR report that Hunsicker noticed Tate left his weapon in the armory with a fully loaded magazine with a live round in the chamber days before his report, on Dec. 13.
Mullinax said that before submitting the report, he reviewed a week’s worth of armory surveillance footage and found that Tate “continuously” stored his weapon loaded before leaving work for the day and “never” checked that his weapon was operational before his shifts.
The HR representative replied to confirm they received the reports and said they would send the email to “Bruno.” Mullinax said it was “obvious” that the HR representative was referring to Bruno Fernandes, GW’s executive vice president and CFO, because he was temporarily handling Paulsen’s responsibilities in December 2023.
Fernandes declined to say if he was made aware of the report.
Paulsen resigned in April. She said at the time that University President Ellen Granberg transferred her administrative duties to Fernandes. McClendon, the University spokesperson, said Goodly assumed “interim supervision” of GWPD on Jan. 1.
When reached for comment, Paulsen said she can’t go into detail about “personnel matters or internal deliberations” but said when issues related to GWPD or its arming rollout came to her attention, she “always promptly took appropriate action.”
HR representatives never followed up with Hunsicker or Mullinax about the improper gun storage reports, the former officers claimed. Hunsicker said their complaint “disappeared into thin air.”
January 2024: Goodly meets with Tate, former officer alleges
Mullinax said the only change he noticed in the department after the October HR meetings was in January 2024, when Goodly replaced Paulsen, the former chief administration officer, in overseeing GWPD.
Hunsicker said they believe Goodly met with Tate that month to discuss the HR report that alleged Tate stored his gun loaded because they noticed Tate “finally” started to unload his firearm when storing it in the armory after seeing Goodly enter Tate’s office around January.
“We all knew that had any one of us done that, we would have been fired in a heartbeat, no questions asked,” Hunsicker said, referring to Tate storing the gun loaded. “It became very frustrating to us that here we are trying to make sure that we’re safe, students are safe, everybody’s safe and following policy and procedure but not everybody, apparently, has to fall under that same kind of umbrella of following policy.”
April 2024: Officers reiterate safety risks in meetings with Goodly
After six months of officers reporting departmental issues, Goodly arranged multiple meetings with groups of supervisory officers to hear the concerns they had within GWPD in April, Hunsicker and Monteiro said.
It was unclear whether Goodly knew about the HR reports before the meetings, former officers said.
Hunsicker said they and other lieutenants attended the April sit-down meeting, in which the officers said they were worried that officials hadn’t taken action to resolve the lack of training, the pattern of policy violations and poor work culture.
Hunsicker said in response, Goodly told the officers to be patient because officials were “working on it” and just needed more time.
“They had already had all that time, so at that point, it meant nothing to us,” Hunsicker said. “Because it was just another kind of like, go sit over there, don’t worry about it. Like, we’ll say we’re doing something, but we’re not actually doing something.”
In a separate meeting between Goodly and sergeants, nearly all supervisors told Goodly that if they didn’t see changes, they would leave GWPD, Monteiro said.
Monteiro said Goodly seemed “very concerned” about the issues described but that the meeting didn’t result in any department changes before officers left last spring and summer.
“[Goodly has] been aware of everything that [The Hatchet] reported,” Monteiro said. “For him to say we’re looking into it, we’re conducting an investigation like it’s, it’s insane to me. He’s as in the know as Chief Tate is.”
Goodly declined to say what actions he took after his alleged meeting with supervisory officers in April.
That month, Tate said the arming implementation was “going well,” which officials appeared to reiterate in their public communications about arming in each update.
The updates state that officers met arming and training certifications to qualify for arming and that arming officers has allowed GWPD to respond to life-threatening emergencies.
Many officers left the department in April and the months after. Mullinax left that month, Brown left in May and Hunsicker left in August. Monteiro said last month that about six sergeants left the department in a roughly two-month period around the time he left in May.
“Mullinax has been making complaints since even before the arming,” Monteiro said. “Nothing was addressed.”
