WASHINGTON — D.C.'s rising crime rate was at the center of talks again today on Capitol Hill. This time, the Republican Chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee called the meeting “productive and bipartisan.”
It appeared Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) and Mayor Muriel Bowser (D-District of Columbia) had a kumbaya moment – not the contentious debates we are used to hearing from the Oversight Committee. Bowser met with members of the committee Wednesday morning.
Mayor Bowser didn't ask for federal money but resources to help fight crime from police to the courts. In fact, the mayor asked Congress to fast track the process to approve judges to D.C. courts and to remove the rider that prevents the city from taxing and regulating marijuana. Bowser also asked Congress to help ease the privacy laws that prevent police departments from sharing information about juvenile offenders.
She said, no doubt, committee members have a stake in keeping the city safe with some of their own being victimized recently. Right now, violent crime in the District is up 40% with 925 car jackings and 253 murders.
“We're hopeful we'll have better numbers at the end of the year than we had at the beginning of the year seeing all of our deployments and strategies and thought changes and a different posture on federal partners having an impact on crime,” said Bowser.
“If there's something we can do to amend privacy laws to help law enforcement better communicate to try to identify and hold accountable these criminals that's what we'll do,” added Chairman Comer. “We have legislative jurisdiction over D.C., but we don't want to micromanage we want to work with the mayor we're impressed with the mayor and I think there are opportunities moving forward.”
The leaders kept alluding to a partnership, and on Thursday, Bowser is expected to announce a 24/7 real-time crime center involving multiple police agencies including U.S. Capitol Police and the Secret Service.
The mayor and chairman also fired back at D.C.'s U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who they said is failing to do his job and help keep repeat criminals behind bars. The U.S. Attorney here in D.C. not only prosecutes federal cases but is responsible for local criminal cases.
Graves recently spoke to the DC Council about ways he sees the system could be improved. Last year, his office chose not to prosecute 67% of D.C.'s cases for reasons including the unaccredited D.C. crime lab. U.S. Attorney Graves said he must contract out to get local evidence and DNA analyzed and that's causing a backup.
The U.S Attorney's office released new numbers in October, saying "an increase of over 60% of cases charged by the Office in D.C. Superior Court at the time of arrest. This increase occurred after the District secured a contract that provided sufficient drug testing capacity in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. Only 7% of the time USAO-DC exercises its discretion and chooses not to charge—almost all are low level misdemeanors."
“That’s an excuse,” the mayor shot back. “If the U.S. Attorney fails to get evidence analyzed, that is the responsibility of the U.S. Attorney and he has the vast apparatus of Department of Justice to call on.”
“I believe that U.S. Attorney Graves is at fault,” added Chairman Comer. “He's clearly behind at prosecuting criminals I think his priorities are in wrong place right now we need to focus on criminals holding criminals accountable.”
Chairman James Comer said he supports the mayor's requests to help ease privacy laws allowing police departments to better share information about juvenile offenders. And they also talked about selling some of the vacant federal office buildings downtown so D.C. can pursue its mission of creating more housing downtown.