WASHINGTON — The D.C. mayor and outgoing police chief announced new policing strategies Thursday, amid an overall rise in crime in the District and officer staffing shortages.
The day after he announced he would be retiring from the only job he's ever held to join the FBI, Police Chief Robert Contee highlighted his department's plan to protect the city heading into the summer months. The "community-centered approach" puts an emphasis on officer engagement with the neighborhoods they patrol, asking them to be "problem solvers."
"This isn't putting someone standing on the corner to deter crime, or officers just writing tickets and making arrests. "This is about officers getting out of their vehicles and engaging with the community. By being problem solvers, talking with community members who identify issues, checking in with businesses and apartment complexes, reporting quality of life issues to 311."
DC Police crime data for 2023 shows that all crime is up 25% compared to this time last year, with homicides up 16%, sex abuse up 57% and car thefts up 107%. The only metric that appears to have decreased is burglaries.
Contee says in the past, summer crime initiatives focused on upping police presence in certain neighborhoods But this year MPD will engage in all quadrants in the city, get to know the specific concerns in individual neighborhoods and track the impact they are making.
"This is a new look of policing, where we are constantly evolving, making tweaks and letting the data prove our progress," Contee said.
WATCH: The full announcement below:
Contee added he would like to see patrol officers' daily routines change as well.
"We want to be very intentional about carving out time in their day where they're not running out to a call to be able to actually focus in on a community," he said.
Contee said the department first rolled out its strategy, with the assistance of two professors at George Mason University, in its sixth district, to much success.
Still, there are skeptics.
Mikki Charles, a lead organizer of the group Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, said she’s concerned Contee’s nearing departure from MPD will make this latest strategy ineffective.
“I think that the city has turnover in leadership positions that affect our public safety and how can we trust the decision making of Bowser’s administration when key players keep leaving?” she said.
Thursday's press conference was the first time Bowser and Contee appeared together since the unexpected news of Contee's departure from the department.
On Wednesday, WUSA9 broke the news first that Contee would be leaving MPD after more than 30 years to join the FBI. His last day with the department will be June 3, before he moves on to become an assistant director of the FBI.
Contee, a D.C. native, joined the department in 1989 as a cadet and became a sworn member of the force three years later. In December 2020, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Contee for the role as chief. He took over just days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
"On behalf of our city, I want to congratulate Chief Contee on his retirement and thank him for his service to DC — for leading MPD with passion and purpose," Bowser wrote in a statement. "He has pushed our criminal justice system to do more and be better. He has led MPD through an incredibly challenging time for our country – from the pandemic to January 6th and navigating the effects of a shrinking department during a time when gun violence is exploding across the nation."