WASHINGTON — Dozens of public officials gathered to discuss crime trends in the District of Columbia at a public safety summit organized by Mayor Muriel Bowser Wednesday.
The event, which took place at the District Emergency Operations Center, in Navy Yard, included Metropolitan Police Department officials, multiple DC councilmembers, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Matt Graves, Attorney General Brian Schwalb and dozens of other DC leaders.
Bowser organized the event during a time when many residents are discussing the issue in their communities. MPD data shows the District has seen violent crime increase 10%, year to date.
The mayor said she wanted District leaders and their organizations to all think about “one, two, or three” ways they could change their practices to better address crime in DC.
“We know that the solutions, many of the solutions, are in this room,” Bowser said.
The summit began with an overview of crime trends in the District and MPD Chief Robert Contee providing an example of what the department’s crime briefings typically look like.
The department specifically discussed the prevalence of illegal guns, carjackings, and domestic violence happening in the District.
Contee said the number of illegal firearms taken off DC streets has increased every year since 2016. He said in 2022, 3,152 such guns were confiscated in DC. He said, so far, in 2023, almost 1,000 illegal firearms have been taken away by DC Police.
The department also said it’s seen an 8% increase in carjacking arrests over the last month. Stolen vehicle arrests are up as well.
However, while Contee acknowledged the crime data and what it shows, he said one of his biggest concerns he has is the perception of crime in the District and the impact it is having mentally on residents.
“It's about how people feel, the people we encounter every day,” he said.
He said the District needs engagement from all stakeholders to address problems happening on local streets.
"We have to be more creative, more inclusive of encouraging other people to fight crime," he said.
The summit also included a panel of justice leaders, including DC Superior Court Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring, United States Attorney for DC Matt Graves, DC Attorney General Matt Schwalb, DC Councilmember Brooke Pinto, and Acting Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah.
DC’s efforts to update its criminal code came up in the discussion moderated by journalist Tom Sherwood. Earlier this year, lawmakers on Capitol Hill blocked DC’s passing of a modernized criminal code over concerns about lenient sentencing guidelines.
Pinto said she would like to see work begin, in October, to once again attempt modernizing the code.
"I still continue to believe that we need to have a modernized and updated criminal code,” she said.
However, she added the DC Council needs to go about the matter in a way that is practical, has the support of the mayor, and can actually get passed.
The role of DC’s youth, and their experiences related to crime, also dominated much of the discussion.
One breakout group, which specifically focused on searching for solutions to help DC’s youth, discussed solutions to address their needs.
Several participants mentioned many DC children are angry that they lack basic resources in their homes like food. Others said too many DC households lack parents.
“A lot of the generational trauma these kids are presented with doesn’t give them a lot of tools in the box,” said Liz Wieser, deputy attorney general for public safety in the District of Columbia.
Some participants, including Bowser, also called on a centralization of youth-related data among DC government agencies to better analyze what is happening in kids’ lives.
“We’ve been talking about centralizing data on juveniles in DC and it has never happened,” she said.
Bowser added DC leaders had to come together to find a way to make sure the District’s system best serves its youth.
“We don’t all trust that we have the best intention for kids,” she said.
DC Public Schools Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee also agreed with the mayor that mandatory service requirements must be handed down to some DC youth offenders whenever the courts decide they cannot prosecute or commit them.
“There has to be something where we can require students receive the services that are needed,” he said.
Tia Bell, founder of The T.R.I.G.G.E.R Project, a youth gun violence prevention non-profit, said more collaboration is also needed with the community to develop solutions in real time.
“A lot of time, government can’t move at the rate the hurt requires,” Bell said.
However, some summit participants also took issue with how youth are generally framed in DC’s conversation about crime.
Schwalb said there are more than 50,000 young people in DC, but only about 500 of them are regularly committing crimes. He said there are many more young people doing extraordinary things the public never hears about.
“We need to change the narrative about how we talk about young people in our city," Schwalb said.
The judicial system and its impact on DC justice ecosystem was also brought under the microscope during the summit.
At one point, Josey-Herring told the audience the system needs more judges. Later, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White questioned Attorney Graves why more convictions were not happening in DC.
“The elephant in the room is that MPD is investigating and when they go to court they’re not getting convicted,” he said.
The United States Attorney’s Office for DC recently revealed it declined to bring charges in 67% of the cases it received in fiscal year 2022.
Graves said, in many cases, his office is not provided with enough evidence to bring a charge or conviction.
“There are no cases where we say, ‘We think there’s enough here but we’re not bring charges,’” he said. “We do not do that.”
Graves added the accreditation issues facing DC’s Office of Forensics Sciences have also complicated matters for his office.
“With drug possession, which makes up a bulk of our misdemeanor offenses, we of course have not been able to test drugs since DFS lost its accreditation,” he said.
Bowser responded that the District does have the tools needed to investigate some evidence and some drugs.
She said the USAO’s decision making when it comes to whether it should charge some suspected offenders may cause some locals to ask questions.
“From the outside looking in, people are concerned that one might be more concerned about their conviction rates than they are about working and trying cases.”