D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser introduced legislation Monday aimed at rolling back some of the city’s sweeping anti-police rules and changes adopted in 2020 as the District grapples with an ongoing wave of shootings, robberies and carjackings.
The mayor’s Addressing Crime Trends (ACT) Now proposal would change what qualifies as an illegal neck restraint, with the mayor saying the current rule prohibiting officers from using the hold is written in language so broad it presents a public safety risk.
Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith echoed the mayor’s concerns, noting that under the current rule, officers can be accused of violating policy by putting their hand on the back of a suspect’s neck while loading them into a squad car.
D.C.’s top cop said the rules and restrictions — adopted in the anti-police fervor that swept the nation after the 2020 murder of George Floyd — have made officers less willing to physically engage suspects, even when those suspects are trying to hurt themselves or other people.
“We have to have a policy environment that allows us to recruit and retain officers, and not lose our officers to the surrounding jurisdictions because our policy environment makes them scared to do their job,” Ms. Bowser said at a press conference outside MPD’s Fourth District station in Northwest.
Metropolitan Police had 3,316 active duty officers as of last month — its lowest number in half a century.
The dwindling officer numbers come as the District is seeing major year-over-year spikes in homicides (up 33%), robberies (up 70%) and carjackings (up 108%).
Violent car thefts have hit historic highs in the nation’s capital, with the District recording 806 carjackings through Sunday. The city is on track to nearly double the previous record-high set last year at 484.
The 225 killings in the District mark the third year in a row the city has seen more than 200 homicides, which hasn’t happened in roughly two decades.
Violent crime overall is up 41% this year.
The mayor’s legislation would also allow officers to review their body camera footage before filing paperwork and would more clearly define situations when an officer can pursue someone in their patrol car.
The bill also introduces stiffer penalties for the ringleaders of retail theft crews and for those wearing masks while committing a crime.
“Drug-free zones” could be established by police for five days in hopes of preventing loitering and the sales of methamphetamines, opiates and even marijuana under the proposed legislation as well.
Both the mayor and police chief noted that the open-air drug deals have contributed to the sense of lawlessness weighing on District residents.
“This serves as another tool for [police] to address drug-related crime on our District streets and protect the public from the dangers that are often reasonable and associated with sales, purchase and the use of illegal drugs,” Chief Smith said.
The District isn’t the only jurisdiction rethinking the anti-police legislation of recent years.
New York rolled back its 2019 bail reform law earlier this year in light of the statewide crime spike that started after Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police.
San Francisco residents recalled District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022 over the prosecutor’s tendency to put offenders into diversion programs rather than behind bars.
Washington state nixed new constraints on police use of force last year after officers said criminal suspects were allowed to walk away even if they were temporarily detained for questioning.
The D.C. Council passed the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Amendment Act on an emergency basis in June 2020, and later enshrined the act into law permanently.
Most major cities experienced a violent crime spike in 2020 and 2021, but have started to see significant declines since then.
The District is an outlier, though, with 2023 shaping up as one of the bloodiest years in decades.
Ms. Bowser, Chief Smith and Lindsey Appiah, the city’s deputy mayor for public safety, all pointed to the unintended consequences of the post-Floyd rules and restrictions on Monday.
“[The reforms] were well-intentioned, and I think all of us, following the murder of George Floyd, wanted to make sure that we were doing everything possible to have a safe and constitutional police force,” Ms. Bowser said. But the mayor added that “some of the reforms have made our communities less safe.”
Ms. Bowser said she’s confident she will secure the seven votes needed to pass her new anti-crime package on the all-Democrat city council.
Three council members in attendance — at-large members Kenyan McDuffie and Anita Bonds, as well as Ward 4 Democrat Janeese Lewis George — all said they support the legislation’s aims to improve public safety, though they reserve final judgment until they see the text of the bill.
Brooke Pinto, the Ward 2 Democrat and chair of the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, said in a statement to The Washington Times that she will hold a hearing on the bill this fall.
She also said she backs the mayor’s focus on improving public safety, but would hold out on supporting the bill itself until she read its text.
That was a sentiment echoed by Charles Allen, one of the chief architects of the police reforms three years ago.
The Ward 6 Democrat told The Times he needs to see if the bill’s text prevents and reduces crime in “a smart, equitable, and effective way,” and if the legislation fills a gap in the current law which requires coordination between the local government and the community.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, on the other hand, said the proposal is a misfire that doesn’t target the violent crime terrorizing locals.
“I am disappointed in the Mayor’s proposal and the hype she’s created around it,” Mr. Mendelson told The Times in a statement.
“Residents are concerned about gun violence, robberies, and carjackings. This proposal does not address gun violence, robberies, and carjackings.”
“Instead, it trots out ‘solutions’ like recreating drug free zones,” Mr. Mendelson’s statement continued. “And while I support the idea of drug free zones, they are unconstitutional. (And the Mayor voted to repeal when she was a Councilmember). The Mayor needs to focus on deterrence and the biggest deterrent of violent crime is closing cases, locking up repeat offenders and prosecuting aggressively.”
Mayor Bowser’s proposed changes come as Republicans on Capitol Hill have held hearings to strafe the District over its public safety apparatus all year long.
The House Judiciary Committee hosted D.C. crime victims earlier this month who talked about their experience of being robbed and assaulted in the city.
The offenders in each case were arrested, but all were given light sentences — an issue the victims laid at the feet of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, headed by the federal prosecutor who handles major crimes in the District.
The attorney’s office has been hounded for declining to pursue two-thirds of the cases brought to them by MPD in Fiscal Year 2022.
Republicans also spearheaded a bipartisan effort to overturn a massive rewrite of the District’s criminal code in the spring that was criticized for reducing penalties for most violent crimes.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, California Republican, said that the District is suffering from a three-headed monster afflicting many liberal cities — laws that excuse criminality, prosecutors who refuse to try cases and judges who give out lenient sentences.
“D.C. is a perfect case study that all of these things have become mutually reinforcing to the point that you have many, many people here who just don’t feel safe,” Mr. Kiley told The Times.
Many federal lawmakers have felt the impact of crime in the city, with staff members and even members of Congress victimized by crooks.
A staffer for Sen. Katie Britt, Alabama Republican, was robbed at gunpoint last week.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, Texas Democrat, was carjacked at gunpoint by three masked thieves earlier this month.
That’s in addition to a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul being randomly stabbed in March by a man who was just released from prison.
In February, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Angie Craig was also assaulted by a man with 12 prior convictions inside her apartment complex.
Ms. Bowser’s proposed legislation was characterized as “too little, too late” by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, New York Republican.
He said the only solution to stop MPD from hemorrhaging officers is for local legislators to do an about-face on all the restrictions they’ve implemented in recent years.
“D.C., New York, and liberal cities across the country are paying the price for their anti-police policies and rhetoric,” Mr. Garbarino told The Times. “If Mayor Bowser wants to make a real difference to D.C. crime rates, she would completely roll back all of the DC Council’s anti-police efforts and empower law enforcement to tackle rising crime as they see fit.”
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