Two Washington, D.C, Metropolitan Police Department cars were totaled by officers who were allegedly drag racing last week.
The officers were in the Kenilworth neighborhood of Washington on Thursday when they crashed their cars, according to a statement from a Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman.
"Preliminarily, it appears the members may have been racing the vehicles, resulting in an accident," the statement said.
The four officers, with the Sixth District, were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life threatening injuries, according to police. They are on "non-contact," which means they have restricted privileges and contact with the public, while the incident is investigated.
In an email sent to command staff Friday and shared with WTTG, Sixth District Commander Durriyyah Habeebullah wrote: "Yesterday two 6D scout cars were totaled because officers decided instead of fighting crime, patrolling their beats, or engaging the community — they decided to drag race each other on Anacostia Avenue at 5 pm in the evening."
"What does this say to all the members of MPD who are passionate about their job and work hard every day to make a difference? This is not fair to any of us," Habeebullah wrote. "What good are officers to their fellow officers if they don’t arrive safely or they total vehicles that we need to do our job."
The Metropolitan Police Department declined to share the email with NBC News, but confirmed that WTTG had obtained it through a department source.
