DC Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement

Last week, agency heads from several departments that service the residents East of the River laid out their plan for comprehensive programs that would service residents over the upcoming months.

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser is proposing a small increase in the police department’s half-billion-dollar budget for the coming fiscal year, which includes money to hire additional officers to help confront the rising number of homicides.

With their days of street beef well behind them, a group of millennials, many of whom will soon enter their 30s immersed in the career field of their choice, reflected on their former lives and where they fit in efforts to quell the…

Many had spent months in the city jail, or worse, in a federal penitentiary. One had been shot in the chest and survived. District authorities labeled them as people who were likely to again become a victim or perpetrator of a crime.

They’re on the front lines, talking and listening to those who might be close to pulling the trigger.

The boys, barely in their teens, were angry. A young man they knew had been shot dead.