Crime in Washington, D.C., is plaguing everyone from longtime citizens to Capitol Hill lawmakers, and Congress and the Council of the District of Columbia, often at odds over the epidemic, are taking matters into their own hands on Tuesday.
The House Oversight Committee will meet in the morning to mark up H.R. 5798, known as the Protecting Our Nation’s Capital Emergency Act of 2023. Later that same day, the D.C. Council will hold its first vote on the Secure D.C. Omnibus bill, legislation comprised of multiple proposals aimed to address concerns that arose following the passage of prior crime legislation.
Crime in the district rose significantly in 2023. The year ended with a 26% increase in total crime, with violent crime rising 39% and property crime increasing 24%. The most frequent criminal act in Washington is carjackings, with motor vehicle thefts increasing by a staggering 82% in 2023.
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as local leaders in the district, have differing opinions as to the cause of rising crime in the nation’s capital. Councilmembers and Del. Eleanor Norton Holmes (D-DC) blame a long-prejudiced criminal justice system and a lack of statehood that makes the district unable to govern itself under the Home Rule Act of 1973. On the other side, conservatives have used Washington as a poster child for the effects of liberal crime policies, arguing that soft-on-crime rollbacks and measures have directly led to the crime epidemic.
Congress has interfered in several D.C. Council initiatives to address crime, as every law that comes out of Washington is subject to congressional oversight, with varying levels of success.
House Oversight members on Tuesday will look at amending the D.C. Government Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act of 1978 to restore police provisions that were rolled back by the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022. The members will discuss including Metropolitan Police Department officer union bargaining “in matters of wrongdoing, as well as the timeline under which such discipline must be carried out for alleged wrongdoing.”
“It is the purpose of this Act to combat the rise in violent crime in our Nation’s Capital by eliminating policies which place law enforcement personnel of the District of Columbia at risk and discourage them from serving, ensuring that such personnel will be treated equitably and fairly and the recruitment and retention of such personnel shall be increased,” the bill text reads.
The police reform bill was one of two major pieces of crime legislation that Congress voted to overturn in the spring of 2023, but President Joe Biden vetoed the attempt. The House and Senate also voted to overturn an overhaul of the criminal code, with Biden declining to veto, marking the first time in 30 years that Congress had repealed a local law passed by the D.C. Council.
“The Oversight Committee is committed to conducting its constitutional oversight authority over our nation’s capital. It’s past time D.C. city leaders address the crime crisis their soft-on-crime policies have created,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “House Republicans are taking a close look at the D.C. Council’s bill and examining whether the omnibus is enough to undo years of mismanagement by the city. I look forward to continuing working with the district to ensure a safe capital city for all.”
At the local level, the Secure D.C. Omnibus bill takes a stronger approach to juvenile crime and carjackings, as well as allocates provisions back to the police that were removed in the police bill, aligning with the House Oversight Committee resolution, suggesting the council is looking to make the changes on its own without federal interference.
Under the omnibus, it would make it a rule that juveniles will be held in pretrial detention if they are charged with certain violent crimes. Other proposals included in the omnibus bill increase maximum sentences for gun-related crimes from one to five years, expand the definition of a carjacking to make it a crime anytime the victim is not just in his or her car but in the vicinity of the vehicle as well, and ban mask-wearing for people committing crimes.
The two legislative processes follow a weekend of violent crime after one district man committed a string of eight crimes over an 11-hour period, including the fatal shootings of two men and the carjackings of multiple vehicles. Suspect Artell Cunningham, who is now deceased, had previous felony charges, where he threatened to kill police officers, dropped in 2021, and his alleged crime spree occurred nearly two years later to the day.
Juvenile crime in the district is up as well, and leaders such as Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb are coming under fire for similar prosecutorial tactics, receiving heavy criticism for declining to prosecute several juvenile cases. Schwalb has actively touted programs of restorative justice and rehabilitation over incarceration, a method preferred by left-liberal prosecutors and officials, and pushed back against tougher detention sentences.
Statistics continue to waiver between an increase compared to this time last year or a slight decrease in criminal activity in the same period. 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, 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.
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The House Oversight Committee markup will begin at 10 a.m., and the D.C. Council will meet beginning at 11 a.m.
The Washington Examiner reached out to district Councilwoman Brooke Pinto for comment.
