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Several Washington, D.C., police officers could lose their jobs because they refused to take an on-scene report after a violent attack on five lesbians July 30 that police classified as a hate crime two days later.

鈥淚 was appalled when I heard about the incident and the conduct of the officers,鈥� police chief Cathy Lanier said in a statement.聽 The officers鈥� actions 鈥渁re being investigated thoroughly,鈥� she added.

The investigation could take up to four months and end in the officers鈥� dismissal, Lanier said at a meeting with gay activists on Friday, A. J. Singletary, chair of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence (GLOV), told Hatewatch. Singletary attended the meeting, which had been set up a few weeks earlier to discuss growing concerns about police laxity in responding to LGBT complaints of harassment and assaults.

In the latest incident, five women, all in their early 20鈥檚, said three men approached them, trying to flirt, outside the Columbia Heights Metro station. After the women rebuffed them, and one said she was with her girlfriend, one man allegedly became enraged and began shouting about 鈥渇------聽dyke b------.鈥� Two of the men then began punching them in the face and head, the women said. A bystander called 911, bringing four police officers to the site, along with three other officers who were nearby but not on duty. The officers restrained one of the attackers, the women said, but then let him go and refused to take a report on the incident.

The mother of one of the women called police later to complain about the officers鈥� behavior. Then, on Aug. 1, the department鈥檚 gay and lesbian unit filed a report and listed the incident as a hate crime, a unit spokesman told Hatewatch.

In the last few years, GLOV has seen a disturbing rise in anecdotal reports of anti-LGBT incidents, and police officers have refused to take reports in numerous cases, said Singletary. (Research by the Southern Poverty Law Center has determined that the LGBT community is the group by violent hate crimes.)

At their meeting with police chief Lanier, GLOV officials said that the department鈥檚 move to virtually gut its three years ago has left the LGBT community less protected against harassment and assaults. The unit was created 11 years ago, a pioneering move at the time. But then the approach changed a few years ago. Certain officers were trained on LGBT issues and dispersed around the city, rather than work out a centralized unit. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 think it was a terrible idea at the time, but it鈥檚 working much less well for us,鈥� said Singletary.

It鈥檚 not even clear to many officers when these special police should be brought in to deal with LGBT harassment and crimes, he said.聽 The department needs to do much more to raise the profile of these officers with other police and the public, and the officers鈥� training needs to be improved, Singletary told Lanier at the meeting.

"She was pretty receptive to changes,鈥� he told Hatewatch. 鈥淪he wants to work with us, and we鈥檝e set another meeting for later this month.鈥�

The incident in which five lesbians were assaulted occurred just a day before in Washington, D.C., said a few words and then pulled out a handgun and shot at her. He missed in that attack, but a man using a similar MO killed 23-year-old Lashai McLean, a transgender woman, on July 20. The attacks were reminiscent of the , two of them teenagers, in 2002 and 2003.