D.C. residents can voice concerns about crime to the city’s top law enforcers at a town hall meeting later this month.
The gathering represents a rare opportunity for the public to explain what’s on their minds to key crime fighters.
“No issue is too large or too small when it comes to making our neighborhoods safer places to live, work, play and learn,” said Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the public safety and the judiciary committee and the host of the town hall meeting.
Confirmed guests include D.C. Chief of Police Cathy Lanier, D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor and Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown. Also invited are representatives from the D.C. Superior Court, Public Defender Service, Pretrial Services Agency, Bureau of Prisons and the Court Services & Offender Supervision Agency.
Ronald Moten, co-founder of Peaceoholics, a nonprofit group that mediates disputes between young people, said he’d like detectives to meet more quickly with assault victims.
Often, he said, two weeks will pass before a detective can meet with the victim.
He said the delays make it difficult to convince young men and women to do the right thing, go to the police and refrain from retaliating.
“A lot can happen in two weeks,” he said.
Moten understands the detectives are overworked, especially in Southeast Washington, “but that’s not something the children should have to figure out.”
The meeting will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 23 at the Ward Memorial A.M.E. Church, 241 42nd St. NE. The church is accessible at the Benning Road stop on Metrorail’s Blue Line or the V7, U2 and W4 Metrobuses.
