Washington, D.C., Police Chief Peter Newsham has reached out to a Chevy Chase, Md., woman who was arrested after neighbors complained about music from a party being too loud, telling her that it was wrong for an officer to take her into custody, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department confirmed Wednesday.

“That’s a nice dress,” the officer said as I stood frozen while she snapped my picture. I thanked her without smiling as she led me to the bright cell with cornflower-colored bars where I would stay until I was summoned once more to be fingerprinted. I wondered how the woman in the cell across from mine could sleep,…