Crime in Washington, D,C., is a crisis. Six months ago, the Washington Examiner looked at some of the issues plaguing the nation’s capital. In the months since, things feel worse than ever, but that might be starting to change. In this series, we are looking at how the nation’s capital wound up with its record on crime, how it affects its standing in the world, and what can be done to turn the problem around. In Part Five, the Washington Examiner takes a look at what local leaders have tried and what options are still on the table if anything is going to curb crime in the capital.
As crime in the District of Columbia has spiraled into a crisis, it has caused the local government to act, but some argue more options should be on the table.
The largest action the local government has taken occurred when Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 into law. The bill, which passed the Council of the District of Columbia unanimously last week, is designed to continue the early trends indicating crime may be coming down from levels not seen since the late 1990s.
The new law combines 12 bills that increase penalties for gun offenses and retail theft, along with expanding the definition of carjacking, among other changes.
Speaking at the bill signing event on Monday, Bowser said accountability is a major push with the new crime bill and that she is hopeful about recent trends showing emergency action taken at the end of 2023 may be working.
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“We want the message to be very clear: If you are participating in those activities, we will hold you accountable,” Bowser said. “Our community has sent a very clear message. People are tired of crime and violence, and they want to count on accountability.”
Another aspect of the crime bill deals with provisions seeking to help decrease crime in the Washington Metro, which saw several shootings in 2023. The bill includes increased penalties for assaulting a Metro bus driver or rail operator, along with allowing police to issue civil citations for fare evasion.
While district leaders have hailed the new bill as tangible progress in the battle to get crime under control, Jessica Anderson, president of the Sentinel Action Fund, thinks it may be “too little, too late.”
Anderson, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, said district leaders should be doing three things to fix the crisis: declaring that crime is real, fully restoring police funding, and establishing a “full restoration of deterrence.”
While Bowser has argued accountability has been a key component of the crime bill effort, deterrence has to be top of mind for officials, Anderson said.
“There’s got to be a clear sign from the D.C. leadership that criminals, if they commit a serious crime, they will go to jail,” she said. “It’s not just kind of a slap on the wrist, but actually having consequences of their actions.”
She criticized the crime bill for not going far enough, arguing that it appeared the council looked at the headlines rather than looking into instilling firm deterrence. Anderson said it is not bad that the council passed the law but noted that accountability needs to be had for letting crime spiral into a crisis.
“I think it’s good that they did this. I’m not saying it’s bad. I just think what’s happened is that the damage of a soft-on-crime district has been felt,” she said. “It’s been felt both by individuals, by lives lost, and by businesses that have been hurt over the last five years.”
“Now they’re trying to do something, but it’s not enough. They need to have some accountability to what’s happened, whether that’s [Washington Attorney General] Brian Schwalb stepping down and taking responsibility for his lack of prosecuting juvenile crime or it’s a full-stop change to the D.C. Council’s leadership team, but I don’t think it’s enough,” she added.
On the matter of juvenile crime, which has plagued Washington in recent years, Anderson said deterrence and education are the keys to reducing those crimes.
“So, you got kids that shouldn’t be in school that are on the streets, and then you’ve got a lack of education about what happens when you enter into the criminal justice system,” Anderson said. “Kids don’t realize that they could be prosecuted, that they may have to stand up for bail, that they could potentially face trial, they could potentially have jail time.”
“There’s a lack of juvenile awareness of how the criminal justice system should be working. So I think, one we need better education,” she added.
Anderson cited the “lessons learned in the ’90s” as her guide for how the district can reduce juvenile crime, citing the D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, program as a key example of how to educate youth on the criminal justice system.
Gabriel Nadales, national director for the anti-crime group Our America, told the Washington Examiner while the bill is a “step in the right direction,” Washington, D.C., still has work to do to increase its police force and resources to fight crime, echoing Anderson’s call for a restoration.
He pointed to cuts the Metropolitan Police Department faced in the wake of the “defund the police” movement in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. The MPD has also had difficulty with shortages of officers as crime has spiked.
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While Washington has offered a $25,000 hiring bonus for police officers for the past 11 months, Nadales pointed to Florida’s initiatives, which it has used to entice police officers to relocate to the Sunshine State. He argued that police officers being on the streets would help with the district’s crime crisis.
“When you support police officers and you increase the number of police officers, you get lower crime,” Nadales said.
