The D.C. Council is considering a bill that would give police access to juvenile arrest records and let them know where juvenile offenders are staying.
Supporters of the bill say police aren’t being told when dangerous young offenders escape from D.C.’s troubled group homes. They also say police are denied access to criminal records that could help solve other crimes.
But opponents say the police aren’t taking advantage of existing law and will use their new power to harass young people.
The council’s Judiciary Committee took testimony Monday on the bill, which was introduced after years of lobbying by the Metropolitan Police Department.
Chief Charles Ramsey told the council that hundreds of juvenile offenders have already been arrested for violent crimes this year.
“We need a new direction with new policies and new ways of thinking,” Ramsey said. “Keeping [records] secret from us makes no sense.”
D.C. Superior Judge Anita Josey-Herring says that D.C. law allows police to ask a judge to unseal juvenile records if they think it’ll help the investigation. In her decades in the Family Court, the police have never asked, Josey-Herring said, adding, “I don’t know who’s advising them.”
Others say police will use the information to harass young people.
“What the cops want to do is just come up with a list of names,” said Liz Ryan of the Justice for D.C. Youth Coalition.
Police say the case of Marcel Merritt shows why they need quick access to juvenile records. After having escaped from a group home, Merritt, 16, was shot execution-style anddumped on Suitland Parkway in October. Referring to him as “the young man,” Ramsey said that Merritt had killed at least four people while in and out of juvenile custody.
But Judiciary Committee Chair Phil Mendelson wanted to know why police didn’t have contacts to tell them that Merritt was back on the street.
“You guys were clueless about this?” he asked.
Ramsey acknowledged that Merritt’s was “a unique case.” But responding to further questioning, he said: “We wouldn’t be here if we got the information we needed, quite frankly.”
Juvenile offenders in the District in 2002
» 2,146 children entered the system last year.
» Of the 1,245 children who were committed to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, 478 had prior arrest records.
» In the first five months of 2006, 228 juveniles were arrested for violent crimes.
Source: D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. police
