Nine federal law enforcement agencies Friday swung their manpower and resources to help the District combat a recent spike in violent crime, pitting the nation’s top investigators against an increasingly aggressive and dangerous criminal element.
Led by the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI, the Violent Crimes Task Force is a joint response to a jump in robberies and other violent crimes citywide. Housed in the FBI’s Washington field office, the task force will include 13 MPD officers and supervisors and 10 FBI agents, as well as investigators and prosecutors out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The task force “will target armed robbers and other violent criminals who seek summertime in the District of Columbia as an opportunity to prey on the innocent and the vulnerable,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth Wainstein.
The FBI will serve as an intelligence clearinghouse and investigative arm — allowing more police officers to walk the streets. The attorney’s office will adjust its schedule to accommodate more cases and the U.S. Marshals Service will conduct a series of fugitive apprehension efforts.
“It is the teamwork among all the agencies over the years that succeeded in reducing crime over the past decade, and it’s teamwork that will stamp out this flare-up of crime that we’re seeing this summer,” Wainstein said during a press conference.
Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared a crime emergency July 11 following a rash of homicides and violent robberies, and immediately called on the federal government for help.
This week, the D.C. City Council adopted a legislative package sought by Mayor Anthony Williams that will put surveillance cameras in neighborhoods and establish an earlier juvenile curfew.
The goal is to reduce violent crime by 50 percent in 30 days.
“We’re going to drive crime down,” Ramsey said. “Our problem will be maintaining it once we get it down to an acceptable level.”
U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with oversight of law enforcement agencies, said he will reprogram funding so that the agencies can “take some immediate revenue to do whatever they need to do.” A Violent Crime Summit will take place in the next 60 days, during which the task force effort will be scrutinized.
Other agencies involved in the task force
» U.S. Park Police
» U.S. Secret Service
» Metro Transit Police
» U.S. Capital Police
» D.C. National Guard
» Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
» Drug Enforcement Administration
