jonetta rose barras: Is a whole DC government response to crime a figment of the imagination?

It’s hard not to be seduced by at-large DC Councilmember Robert White’s concept of a “whole government response” to the indisputable public safety crisis in the nation’s capital, underscored by near-daily reports of multiple shootings, homicides, carjackings, and retail thefts so extensive that they threaten the provision of critical resources to District residents. Surely no one disagrees that something comprehensive and aggressively dramatic must be done to rein in the lawlessness.

However, several residents I spoke with over the past week, including longtime civic leader Terry Lynch, believe the bill White announced last week — the Whole Government Response to Crime Act of 2023 — involves too much bureaucracy and not enough crime-fighting or crime prevention. In other words, it mostly misses the mark.

“[He’s] creating more bureaucracy … more committees, more reports. There are a thousand hours of make-work,” Lynch told me. 

“Sometimes, I am not sure some of these councilmembers even live in DC,” he added, noting that they don’t seem to realize that homicides are the highest they have been in more than 20 years.

As of Oct 6, violent crime in 2023 is up 40% over this time last year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Property crime is up 26%. In 2022, MPD recovered 3,152 illegal guns in the District.

With those kinds of stats, no one should be wearing rose-colored glasses. There are too many blood-stained streets.

Still, White insisted during an interview with me earlier this week that his bill is “exactly the opposite” of Lynch’s criticism, providing necessary and fundamental reforms.

“We have to go back to ‘first principle,’” White said. “We’re trying to fix a siloed and disjointed public safety system. We’re trying to fix a broken foundation.”

If White’s bill, which is being co-introduced by nine of his colleagues, isn’t a bureaucrat’s delight — creating superfluous jobs and moving existing government tiles around while acting as if they are new — then it’s an undeniable exercise in tweaking. 

As written, it would, among other things, require the collection and publication of “firearm tracing data.” It would mandate that the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement “develop and track performance metrics that measure the effectiveness of violence reduction programs and publish the data publicly.” In the case of the latter, the DC auditor has issued at least two reports that examine and evaluate the violence interrupters and Cure the Streets programs.

Further, White’s proposal would “establish the position of Victim Services Coordinator within the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants to coordinate with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Victim Services Branch and Hospital-based Violence Intervention Programs”; “create a recruitment and retention program at the Department of Forensic Sciences to ensure the District has the workforce necessary to close criminal cases”; and “create a 911 System Improvement Task Force to examine the effectiveness of the Office of Unified Communications’ 911 system.” 

It’s true, 911 is a mess. But legislation has already been introduced to require data collection and transparency, reportedly intended to help improve the system. A permanent version of the emergency bill approved over the summer is pending in committee.

If councilmembers in their oversight role actually want to improve the 911 emergency system, they might start by demanding Mayor Muriel Bowser select a new director. 

White’s proposal also would “establish the position of Director of Emerging Adult Services to coordinate and lead the implementation of the Youth Rehabilitation Act and citywide efforts to meet the needs of emerging adults in the District.”

This one is most baffling as far as I am concerned. What needs of emerging adults is the District not trying to meet? Consider, for example, that there are already job and training programs available to residents as old as 24. When do we demand they launch? If current programs are failing to deliver on their promise, surely there are high-ranking officials in place who should be holding their subordinates responsible.

Nowhere in White’s whole response does the two-term councilmember mention carjackings or homicides, although those are the primary concerns of most residents who fear the randomness of so much of the crime hitting DC: Someone climbs out of the Columbia Heights Metro station and is shot to death. Another person is walking down the street and is shot. A member of the U.S. House of Representatives — Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat from Texas — pulls his car up to his apartment building and is carjacked at gunpoint. And let’s remember that in 2022, according to police statistics, 105 juveniles were shot — 16 of them fatally.

“It doesn’t matter how many police we put on the street,” continued White, noting that the system is broken and more MPD visibility alone can’t fix that. Along those same lines, he said, it doesn’t matter how many violence reduction programs we have if “we’re not tracking whether some are working better than others.”

White said officials keep talking about the city being flooded with guns. “But are we tracking guns to their source? We have to understand the focal point of where the guns are coming from.” 

“I know splashy is more fun; it gets headlines,” said White, dismissing criticism of his bill as the result of a thirst by some for the sensational.

I don’t count any of the people I spoke to as falling within that category — surely not myself. People have a thirst for life. They want to ensure the personal safety of family members. They want elected officials to understand there really is a crisis in the city that demands an urgent, comprehensive response.

“My fear, as a longtime homeowner,” explained Lynch, “is that one of my daughters or my wife will drive down an alley and get carjacked.”

Before its summer recess, urged by Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, the legislature approved emergency legislation that was supposed to stem the violence. The killings and carjackings proceeded seemingly unabated.

In some ways, White’s legislation duplicates elements of Pinto’s Secure DC Plan, a package of bills, incentives and initiatives addressing public safety. In my view, her various legislative proposals — which include the Addressing Crime Through Targeted Interventions and Violence Enforcement (ACTIVE) Amendment Act of 2023 — suffer their own bureaucratic and tweaking symptoms. She has pledged to hold public hearings this fall on the ACTIVE bill as well as other measures she has introduced. There’s no word yet regarding a hearing on White’s legislation.

Expect more public safety bills over the next several months. Election season has opened: Pinto, White and Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George have announced their reelection bids. Ending the carnage is a top priority for District voters.

I like White. I supported his 2016 and 2020 runs for council. His performance has been mixed, although his sincerity and his integrity are unquestioned. 

However, the valid question that is being asked by many residents is whether White and the other councilmembers deserve another term, given the current circumstances — rising crime, a declining local economy, lagging student academic performance. Most elected officials got a pass during the COVID-19 pandemic; people were much too preoccupied to make any significant change. The virus-effect has dissipated.

Equally important, residents clearly wonder whether they can depend on a “whole government response” from DC when, in reality, it is a flailing, mediocre operation.

This post has been updated to clarify that the Addressing Crime Through Targeted Interventions and Violence Enforcement (ACTIVE) Amendment Act of 2023 is just one aspect of Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s Secure DC Plan.

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jonetta rose barras is an author and DC-based freelance journalist, covering national and local issues. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.