Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb is frequently in the spotlight regarding the rise in criminal activity in the nation’s capital.
Critics have taken aim at everything from his prosecutorial approaches to his opposition to tough-on-crime legislation sponsored by other Democrats.
Schwalb’s office and prosecutors could be affected by the Secure DC Omnibus, a crime and public safety bill that passed the Council of the District of Columbia on its first of two votes. Among the legislation’s provisions include increasing penalties for some crimes, establishing new crime categories, and increasing juvenile pretrial detention.
Juvenile crime is on the rise, and Schwalb has come under fire for declining to prosecute cases involving minors, with critics arguing these minors later become repeat offenders to elevate to more dangerous crimes.
Here are four instances where Schwalb’s approach to crime in the district has come under scrutiny.
District cannot ‘prosecute or arrest’ its way out of crime
Schwalb recently came under fire for a response he gave at a panel last week arranged by Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen to discuss carjacking and rising juvenile crime.
Many community members were demanding accountability for not only the officers but prosecutors to punish criminals, even if they are minors. Metropolitan Police Department data showed 173 carjacking arrests were made in 2023, with 62% of arrests involving juveniles.
When asked why juveniles were not being held accountable, Schwalb said there needs to be more than just arrests to combat the wave of crime crashing through the district.
“We as a city and a community need to be much more focused on prevention and surrounding young people and their families with resources if we want to be safer in the long run,” Schwalb said. “We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it.”
Attorney general pushes back against Bowser’s tough-on-crime legislation
Tension arose between Schwalb and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office after the attorney general came out against her “Tough on Crime” bill that would have increased pretrial detentions for juveniles.
In February last year, Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for public safety, appeared to call out Schwalb for a lack of follow-through on the prosecutorial side of things.
“[We’ve seen] increases in categories like carjacking and otherwise. … We have not seen a corresponding increase in commitment,” Appiah said during a public hearing.
Schwalb has praised programs of restorative justice and rehabilitation over incarceration, a method preferred by liberal prosecutors and officials, and pushed back against tougher detention sentences.
“Several provisions of this proposed legislation, however, are problematic. They default back to the flawed assumption that easier and lengthier incarceration, both pretrial and after adjudication, will improve public safety,” Schwalb said in public testimony against the Safer Stronger Amendment. “In doing so, the provisions fail to heed the painful lessons our history teaches: that unnecessary or unnecessarily lengthy incarceration does not make us safer.”
Schwalb also has claimed that increasing pretrial detentions without “evidentiary support” could lead to “more children being locked up” even if they “pose no threat to public safety.”
Schwalb throws support behind overhauling DC criminal code
Like many Democrats in Washington, Schwalb supported the D.C. Council’s vote to overhaul the district’s criminal code in January last year, his second day on the job. He went against Bowser, who vetoed the overhaul. It was still passed after the council overrode her veto.
“I think the net result was our city is going to be safer and the administration of justice is going to be fairer with that new law in place,” Schwalb said in an interview with DCist last year regarding his support of the overhaul. “And so I thought it was important, as the chief law officer of the city, as somebody who I think is elected to be the chief thought leader on issues of law and justice in the city, to speak out, that I think that should be the law of the District of Columbia.”
Many Republicans were quick to blast Schwalb and the council members for their support in overhauling the criminal code, which would lessen penalties for homicides, carjackings, and robberies. Congress and President Joe Biden worked together to override the overhaul, which would have gone into effect in 2025 had it not been shot down.
Schwalb directly drew the ire of Republicans after he sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Thursday, urging the Democratic leader to disapprove of the resolutions seeking to override the district’s code overhaul. In it, he argued that it interfered with the city’s right to local government. He had sent a similar letter to House leaders as well, specifically then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“The criticisms of the law as ‘soft’ fail to acknowledge that the [criminal code overhaul] actually increases maximum sentences for many crimes, including armed robbery, sexual assault, and attempted murder,” Schwalb wrote in his letter. “For these reasons, it is questionable whether congressional efforts to thwart local legislative reforms are really making D.C. safer.”
‘Kids are kids’ philosophy
Critics of Schwalb have been quick to jump on the attorney general’s view that “kids are kids.”
In an April interview with Fox 5 DC last year, Schwalb said the juvenile system is committed to “treat kids like kids,” giving them a “chance of rehabilitation and going on to live lives of success and independence.
“Kids are different than adults, and our job as the attorney general of the city is to keep the city safe but also make sure we stay true to our obligation to young people,” Schwalb said.
“I don’t think kids should be treated as adults,” Schwalb added. “Kids are kids, and when you’re talking about teenagers particular — their brains are developing, their minds are developing, and their biologically prone to make mistakes — that’s what we’ve all done as we’ve grown up.”
The “kids are kids” philosophy has come back to haunt the district, particularly after the attorney general and his prosecutors have declined to take up cases against many juveniles who are arrested and accused of crimes and then move on to more frequent and more deadly crimes.
In June 2023, Schwalb dropped charges against an 11-year-old boy responsible for an alleged assault and string of robberies. Less than two weeks later, the child was arrested again for armed robbery.
At the time, the attorney general’s office released a statement saying that it “prosecutes all serious and violent crimes committed by juveniles, including carjacking and armed robbery, where we have the evidence needed to do so,” according to the New York Times.
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In 2024, there have been 500 reported motor vehicle thefts and 250 robberies, per district crime statistics. Fifty-seven carjackings have been reported so far as of Feb. 6, with 53% involving guns and only 11 cases solved. According to police, 88% of carjacking offenses have been committed by juveniles, with 100% of them residing in the district.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Schwalb’s office multiple times but did not receive a response.
