Residents of D.C.’s Trinidad neighborhood overwhelmingly oppose the use of police checkpoints in their community, according to a recent survey that directly challenges Mayor Adrian Fenty’s claim of broad support for the tactic.
A third of the D.C. Council argued during a committee hearing Monday that the “neighborhood safety zone” checkpoints are a constitutionally questionable quick fix and have done little but embarrass the District on a national scale.
“It really doesn’t look good for our nation’s capital to be living in a police state,” Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander said during a meeting of the public safety committee.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier told the panel that the initiative has community support, but neighbors are afraid and only willing to express such confidence in private. With the Trinidad roadblocks, which were lifted Thursday after an initial five days, police attempted to limit access to that crime-ravaged area to those with a “legitimate” reason of being there, an effort that called for identifying drivers and questioning their destinations.
“The support is not going to come out in a public meeting,” Lanier said.
Twenty-two people have been slain in the FifthPolice District since March.
Fenty and Lanier both claimed community backing when they announced the checkpoint program two weeks ago, but a different response emerged from a survey circulated among Trinidad residents by Ward 5 D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas.
Of 55 respondents, 24 said they “strongly oppose” the barricades, and another nine said they “somewhat oppose,” a combined 60 percent. Seventeen of 53 respondents said the zones were “not at all effective” and another 19 said they were “not very effective,” a combined 68 percent.
Lanier is “trying to do her best,” Thomas said, “but the checkpoints are not the answer.”
“The most effective law enforcement is that which has the most community support, and that is not what’s the case here,” said Councilman Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety committee.
The zones had the staunch support of Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser as a short-term reaction to a spate of shootings, while at-large Councilman David Catania called them an “initial starting point.”
Ward 5 stands by the checkpoints, argued Kathy Henderson, a Northeast neighborhood activist. Residents, she said, are willing to show identification if it means quelling the violence.
“We’re not saying anyone’s civil rights are being violated except ours,” Henderson said.
