The District experienced a rise in crime in 2007, leading Police Chief Cathy Lanier to express disappointment Monday while vowing that changes she is now implementing will eventually reverse those trends.
Lanier, who took over as head of the Metropolitan Police Department in January 2006, told the D.C. Council’s public safety committee that crime increased by 4 percent overall last year. Violent crime was up 1 percent and property crime 5 percent.
“Although this is certainly not what I had hoped to be able to report at the end of the first year, there is some good news,” Lanier told the panel. “For one, for the first time in a decade, MPD reached a 70 percent homicide clearance rate. …”
Lanier said arrests were up 4 percent for 2008, including a 21 percent increase in juvenile arrests. “Crime trends usually change gradually; our challenge is to make sure that this change sticks,” she said.
Among the 2007 crime statistics: Robberies climbed 11 percent, thefts rose by 11 percent, assaults with dangerous weapons declined 8 percent and sexual assaults fell 21 percent.
MPD is up to 3,938 members, Lanier said, up from 3,809 at the same time last year. The force is expected to grow to 4,200 within two years, but the department continues to struggle with retention issues, losing roughly 13 members per month.
“To be clear, we will not sacrifice quality in order to increase quantity,” Lanier told the committee, chaired by Councilman Phil Mendelson.
Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. police union, said the MPD has done little to improve officers’ quality of life. The District has wasted millions of dollars recruiting and training officers, Baumann said, only to see them bail for other departments that offer 20-year retirement, 10-hour work shifts, take-home vehicles and educational benefits.
Lanier touted her initiatives to put 200 additional officers on foot patrol and nearly 200 recruits into the communities, along with her All Hands on Deck program and her 72-day Summer of Safety.
And she said that re-establishing the Gun Recovery Unit and vice squads has removed 125 firearms from the streets.
