The year 2006 was the beginning of the end for D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey, 60, who in eight years dramatically cut crime in the District and professionalized the city’s police force, but not to the satisfaction of an incoming 35-year-old mayor.
In the midst of a summer crime wave, after the city suffered 13 murders in 11 days and a series of assaults on the National Mall, Ramsey declared a crime emergency in a move that allowed him to put 525 more officers on the street each night. By year’s end, the rising violence had reversed and 2006 will go down as one of the safest the city has had in decades. The city, once known as the Murder Capital on the Potomac, had its fewest murders in 21 years, and the second-lowest total since the mid-1960s.
But it wasn’t enough to save the job that Ramsey has called the best he’s ever had. Incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty replaced Ramsey with one of the chief’s homegrown disciples, Cmdr. Cathy Lanier, the first woman to hold the job in the city. She takes her post Jan. 2.
The year opened with a brutal beating death of retired New York Times journalist David Rosenbaum near his Northwest home. Subsequent investigations revealed that police had failed to investigate a similar attack by the assailants a month and a half before the assault on Rosenbaum.
Ramsey had publicly expressed concern about a spike of robberies being committed by more and younger juveniles. Teens were leaving the poorer neighborhoods in stolen cars or on the Metro to rob victims in wealthy neighborhoods and police began noticing a trend of young robbers who punched their victims just for the thrill of it before they’d take their victim’s wallet.
In May, the first of the Mall attacks was reported. In July, robbers fatally slashed the throat of a British man in Georgetown, followed by the shooting death of a political activist in downtown Washington. Ramsey declared the crime emergency that allowed him to order a mandatory six-day workweek for his officers. The D.C. City Council approved more than $14.2 million in extra funds to pay for the overtime and passed emergency legislation that set an earlier curfew for juveniles, authorized the installation of 48 cameras in District neighborhoods and eased the sharing of information among law enforcement agencies.
In September, a drug-addled man was able to bypass U.S. Capitol police and enter the U.S. Capitol with a gun before being tackled by residents. Acting Chief Christopher McGaffin was replaced by Phillip D. Morse, a 21-year veteran of the agency.
Federal agencies formed local task forces to crack down crime in the nation’s capital and by August, all five of the Mall attackers were arrested. The violent crimes and robberies task forces investigated more than 100 cases and have closed more than 30 crimes. The U.S. Marshals task force, with officers from Baltimore to Norfolk, began cracking down on violent crime warrants, resulting in the arrest of more than 1,000 fugitives.
