With twice as many federal uniformed police in the District as D.C. police officers, more can be done to coordinate crime-fighting and emergency response duties, said the head of the police union. The District, which has been under a crime emergency since July, is home to some 7,700 federal police officers and 38 law enforcement agencies.
Under the emergency, declared after the District witnessed violent attacks on the National Mall and the deaths of 13 people in 11 days, the 3,800 sworn men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department have worked mandatory overtime hours and the D.C. council has spent more than $14 million to pay for the extra work. But Lou Cannon, president of the D.C. Fraternal Order of Police, said more can be done to make the District safer by signingpolice agreements with the minor agencies. Each agreement identifies the street boundaries that define the expanded jurisdiction and allows federal officers to patrol the area, make arrests under D.C. laws, share radio frequencies and streamline the processing of suspects. For more than 10 years, he has called for a summit of all law enforcement agencies.
The District has signed agreements with some law enforcement agencies, such as the U.S. Capitol Police, Defense Protective Service and the National Zoological Park Police. But coordinating with dozens of other agencies in the District would free D.C. police to patrol other parts of the city, Cannon said.
Another example, Cannon said, in the event of an evacuation, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Police Force, which has more than 100 officers, can direct traffic outside its building at 14th Street NW, a major thoroughfare out of the city.
“Take 10 officers from 10 agencies and that’s 100 police officers that can help,” Cannon said. “Even small agencies can offer something.”
D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and top law enforcement officials last week touted the results of the crime emergency, citing the police overtime, new crime initiatives and the coordination of the major law enforcement agencies including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and the Metro Transit police. Violent crime decreased 18 percent since July compared to last year. Ramsey said he’d love the extra help, but most of the federal agencies are concentrated in the downtown area, not in high-crime areas. The Capitol Police, Park Police and Secret Service police already do an effective job, he said.
“The Supreme Court police or the Smithsonian police are not going to patrol Southeast Washington,” Ramsey said.
