In response to troubling crime trends, the D.C. Council voted nearly unanimously on Tuesday to approve a sweeping bill that covers carjackings, gun crimes and DNA collection, among other things.
Council members voted 12-0 in support of the legislation, with Ward 8 Council member Trayon White voting “present.” Tuesday marked the second vote on the bill, which was created as lawmakers face mounting pressure over how the city is responding to violent crimes.
Now, the legislation heads to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s desk.
In a statement, Mayor Bowser praised the lawmakers for taking a “critical step in the work to build a safer DC by rebalancing our public safety and justice ecosystem in favor of safety and accountability.”
“This bill is a serious commitment from the council to our residents that we take your safety seriously,” Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen said before the vote. “And that action is more productive than finger pointing.”
What’s in the anti-crime bill?
The legislation, called the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024, expands the definition of carjacking and increases penalties for gun crimes. It also enables D.C. police to engage in chases under certain circumstances, and makes it easier for judges to keep adults and juveniles accused of violent crimes detained while they’re awaiting trials.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves has said several times that a small group of people are responsible for the majority of crimes in the city.
Graves said parts of the bill “will provide crucial tools to police and to prosecutors as we collectively work together to hold those who commit crimes in our community accountable.”
“This is the biggest challenge,” Ward 3 Council member Matt Frumin said.
Council members also voted to support a change in the package that allows for people charged with a violent crime to be swabbed for their DNA after a probable cause hearing.
The Council had previously approved an amendment to the bill that would prohibit police from collecting DNA samples from individuals who have been arrested before conviction.
Under the approved legislation, D.C. police will also be able to establish drug-free zones in crime hot spots.
“This drug-free zone policy is a narrow tool,” Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto said. “There are a couple of spots in the city that have become real hot spots of crime, of illegal activity, of weapon sales.”
An effort to change the threshold for the felony offense of retail theft from $1,000 to $500 failed Tuesday, and some council members argued the bigger concern is that theft cases aren’t prosecuted often.
What’s to come?
“There is a tendency to demagogue and say, ‘I have the solution to crime, we’re going to make mandatory sentences, we’re going to make longer sentences, we’re going to make everything a felony.’ The research is clear — those are not what actually reduces crime,” Chairman Phil Mendelson said.
But in pushing for the change, Pinto said the council should “send a really strong message that that status quo cannot be tolerated any longer.”
Critics of the legislation, such as the ACLU of D.C., said it gives too much power to police while scaling back on accountability.
“Some of today’s amendments provided some relief, but we’ll keep fighting to see true public safety in the District,” the organization wrote in a social media post.
Several council members also criticized the way Mayor Bowser has promoted the bill as the ultimate solution to solving the city’s crime crisis.
“I’m going to be a little harsh here … that the mayor has passed the buck and misled the public that the solution to crime in the District is the Council,” Mendelson said.
Council member Zachary Parker said the package has unfortunately been “framed for residents as a panacea for D.C. crime in some ways.”
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