WASHINGTON — In the Adams Morgan neighborhood, you can spot the rash of break-ins by the boarded up windows and doors that dot 18th Street, Northwest.
Police say the good news is they've arrested a man investigators say is responsible for a lot of the crimes, but some business owners say it's going to take more than that.
"A lot more crime recently," said Peter Shin the owner of The Bottle Shop which was recently broken into. "It's not just us, but a couple of weeks ago the store down there got broken into."
Several stores, in fact, near Shin's Adams Morgan wine and spirits store have been broken into over the past five months.
Monday, police announced the arrest of 53 year-old Ronald Goins, Jr. of Northwest, D.C. whom they say committed at 18 crimes in the neighborhood dating back to October of 2022. Goins, Jr. is accused of breaking into businesses, ransacking them, and even robbing people on the street.
But, Shin says the problems here go back over the past few years.
"I would say ever since COVID hit us. I don't think things have been coming back to normal," Shin said. "It's just a very uneasy feeling. And to be honest, when we first opened in 2016, we never really had any issues like that whatsoever."
"We know that this neighborhood has been particularly hard hit with burglaries and other crimes," said Mayor Muriel Bowser (D-DC).
Monday, Mayor Bowser came to the neighborhood to announce police are deploying a task force to Adams Morgan to deal with property and violent crimes.
She says these teams worked for Connecticut and U Streets in Northwest and H street in Northeast last year.
"That means is depending on what's going on in the neighborhood and our staff resources, we will be able to deploy in Adams Morgan," Bowser said.
Including, she said, more foot patrols by police. Shin says its foot traffic that may help the most.
"I'm looking forward to a lot more people coming back," he said. "I don't want only us to do well, I want everybody else on the street to do well, too."
The Mayor said in addition to Adams Morgan, this task force will also be in Mt. Pleasant and other nearby neighborhoods.