DC Mayor Bowser hosts crime summit addressing public safety

WASHINGTON - All of the District’s decision-makers were under the same roof for a public safety summit Wednesday hosted by Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The nearly 5-hour event was billed as a gathering to "discuss the state of crime trends in the District, strategies within the public safety ecosystem to address crime, and solicit feedback from public safety leaders."

"You all get to ask me about public safety all the time," said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser when asked by FOX 5 what new information would come out of today. "It was very refreshing for me to see the type of questions, and you know – in that you represent what your viewers or readers want to hear about – to hear about some of those questions to other parts of our public safety ecosystem."

Much of the conversation had at the crime summit was not new. However, there were important moments in the discussion, including when Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White asked about the "elephant in the room" speaking of people getting arrested for guns and being let back on the street. He asked about the disconnect and for an explanation when news coverage of the U.S. Attorney’s Office talks about a significant percentage of cases not being tried.

"It was around 67% of total arrests, not firearms arrests. The overwhelming number of arrests in our jurisdictions are misdemeanors," said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves. "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."

The U.S. attorney also said, "Whenever we think there is a firearms arrest that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, we are charging that case. There are no cases where we say, ‘Oh we think there’s enough here, but we’re not bringing charges."

"From the outside looking in, people are concerned one might be concerned over their conviction rates, more then they are about working and trying cases," Mayor Bowser added. 

The mayor's response was not delivered when the two were in the same space speaking during the summit.

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III went on to describe the difference in burdens – D.C. police only need probable cause to make an arrest when prosecutors need to show proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The chief spoke of this as a "gap" in the system. However, FOX 5’s Chief Legal Correspondent Katie Barlow explained they’re talking about the Fourth Amendment, which is the standard for every jurisdiction across America and not something specific to D.C.

There were several questions on the matter, but the mayor spoke on using legislation to ensure those arrested for a second violent offense are held in pretrial detention.

Earlier in the event, D.C. police gave an example of what a weekly Metropolitan Police Department crime briefing looks like. The mayor told FOX 5 she thought that it was important to share with the community to show some of the different crime difficulties police are addressing.

Stats shared by D.C. police show crime is up in every category except burglaries now compared to this same time last year. Police also noted when it comes to juvenile crime, there were fewer arrests in 2020, not wanting to introduce more juveniles to the criminal justice system. Two years later, police found that around 31% or 117 of the 381 juveniles arrested last year had been arrested for the first time – and their first arrest was on a violent offense.

The proliferation of guns was another issue mentioned by the chief judge for the District of Columbia.

"We are gathering information, and we will be using some of what we learned to talk about changes that we need to the law or our policies," Mayor Bowser said. 

She also spoke of how important it was to hear community members in a juvenile break-out session held – and how some community leaders feel it’s best to address the whole family when it comes to addressing juvenile crime.

Councilmember Trayon White, who for years has been calling on more wrap-around services to address D.C. crime holistically, gave the mayor credit for hosting the summit saying it’s long overdue. He also didn’t mince words on what needs to happen.

"We’re at critical mass when it comes to crime in D.C. and we are not taking it as seriously as it really is – especially when Black and brown people are significantly affected by the crimes and the shootings," White said. "We’ve had over 1,700 shootings in D.C. in the last three years. We have to tell what the truth is and there’s little to no arrests or convictions. We’ve got to put more resources in the community," said White, "we have not found a cure and as a result it has spread throughout the District where crime is up everywhere."

"I think we have to have honest dialogue with all stakeholders at the table, I think that has not happened. I think we’ve gotten some of the highest-risk individuals into programming in D.C. but it’s not enough. Like with a $19.7 million budget, we should have a deeper investment, and so I think the mayor’s going on the right path but we’ve got to speed it up because it’s lives at stake," the Ward 8 council member added. 

When asked who is not in the room for the summit but should have been, White responded, "I don’t see no youth in the room. A lot of our community partners are not in the room. A lot of the everyday, working-class people are online saying they can’t comment."

It’s not often that the superior court chief judge is available for an interview. FOX 5 asked whether any conversations were being had regarding judges being too lenient, especially on juveniles.

"I don’t think we need to have any of those discussions because we’re following the law. And so that’s really the centerpiece. The law dictates what we do," Judge Anita Josey-Herring said. "We interpret and apply the law and a lot of times our discretion is limited by statutes that are passed by the city council and so essentially the city has to make a decision about what its position is. What is the policy of this city in terms of dealing with violent crime so that we can properly implement the law in individual cases?" 

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb spoke about how he feels the narrative needs to change around juveniles, arguing of the 50,000 youths in the District, less than 500 are involved in the city’s juvenile justice system.

During the juvenile break-out session, Rhonda L. Johnson with Now Hope 2 Reality became emotional after telling the mayor, "I just feel as though this generation that is doing this harm are children from the crack cocaine epidemic and nobody’s asking, ‘What can we do? What did you go through when you were a child? So now their children are going through it. So, until we actually sit down … It should’ve been youth here today."

The Mayor spoke about how it’s not a new concept, but her office is looking at being able to hold certain children outside the juvenile justice system.

"How do we make … how do we go to the courts, go to the OAG and say this kid, you don’t want to commit them, you don’t want to prosecute them. You don’t want to send them to DYRS, they call that the deep end. Give them to us in another way where we can make their services mandatory," the mayor suggested. 

Washington, D.C.Crime and Public Safety