D.C. Council members are promising students “safe passage” to and from their schools with proposed no-loitering zones in which police could disperse or arrest people they believe are hanging out to commit a crime.
All 13 D.C. Council members support legislation allowing the Metropolitan Police Department to establish temporary, 1,000-foot safety zones outside public and charter schools, if the MPD has reason to believe there is a threat against students, parents or staff.
With a “Safe Passage Emergency Zone” in place, officers could scatter groups of three or more individuals — known gang members or violent offenders, for example — and arrest those who refuse to leave.
Such a zone, under the bill, could remain in place for up to five consecutive school days, and only between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. The bill requires that police mark the boundaries of the zone with warning signs.
“This legislation is critical not just for public safety but for public education because it will ensure a greater likelihood that students can come to or leave school safely and not have to spend the school day in fear,” said at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson.
The bill was inspired by a rash of recent violence — gang fights and incidents of students getting jumped — outside Northeast D.C.’s Friendship Edison High School.
The council and Fenty administration have yet to agree on the best way to fight gang and youth violence plaguing certain D.C. neighborhoods. Attorney General Peter Nickles said the safe passage bill is “not an effective way to deal with … the real problems.”
“I think it’s halfhearted, ineffective and has legal problems,” Nickles told The Examiner.
The AG said he was crafting a crime bill now “which is serious about doing something about crime.”
It is not illegal to loiter in the District, but the government has created statutes to circumvent the constitutional problems that loitering laws create. The MPD, for example, has the authority to establish “prostitution-free zones” and bar groups of two or more people from congregating in a certain area for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.
