Facing a continuous threat of violent crime — and in particular, juvenile violent crime — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and police Chief Pamela Smith led a public safety summit Saturday with grassroots leaders of the city.
ANC commissioners from across the city sat down with Bowser and Smith at the Turkey Thicket Recreation Center in the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast, where Bowser urged support for sweeping anti-crime measures that are scheduled to face a second vote Tuesday in the D.C. Council.
The bundle of bills, called Secure DC, would strengthen laws against crimes including carjackings, retail theft, drug dealing, discharging firearms and domestic violence.
“We want to be safe. We want to have opportunities for everyone to live their best lives in D.C. We believe in second chances. But we also believe in accountability and that if people choose violence, they have to be held accountable,” Bowser told commissioners.
Commissioners were shown a graphic that displayed changes in public safety across the District since 2012, including dramatic increases in homicides, a greater number of guns, more juvenile violent crime, fewer police officers and fewer juveniles in the custody of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
While higher rates of carjackings and homicides were recorded in D.C. during 2023, Smith was able to share some good news with commissioners: a decline in crime rates during the first two months of 2024.
“We have an overall 10% reduction in crime citywide. We are seeing reductions in almost every category of crime today. And although we’re two months in of the year, I continue to tell my team that we have to keep our foot on the gas in order to ensure that we can reduce crime across the city,” Smith said.
From 2012 to 2023, the number of homicides in D.C. climbed from 104 to 274; guns recovered swelled from 1,330 to 3,135; and the number of D.C. police officers decreased from 3,972 to 3,337.
Comparing the same two years, carjackings by juveniles skyrocketed from nine in 2012 to 197 in 2023 and juvenile homicides rose from six to 19.
“There’s been a huge uptick in crime, which is going against nationwide trends … we’ve had carjackings in my single-member district, we had someone killed in my ANC just recently and we’ve had a lot of robberies and other things of that nature,” said Emily Singer Lucio, the advisory neighborhood commissioner for Michigan Park and North Michigan Park.
Singer Lucio added that she thinks lawbreakers must be held to account.
“I’m all for restorative justice, but if (crime) repeats itself over and over again, someone needs to be held accountable,” she said.
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