The D.C. Council’s public safety committee voted Wednesday in favor of more pretrial detention for violent suspects as District leaders look to signal that last year’s crime spike was an outlier.
The Secure DC omnibus bill that combines elements from nearly a dozen pieces of anti-crime legislation was passed unanimously by the committee and will go to the D.C. Council for a vote next week.
The bill is aimed at addressing quality-of-life issues that researchers say undergird criminal behavior while also providing more muscle to the District’s enforcement arms by relaxing police neck restraint protocols and empowering judges to detain violent suspects before their trials.
Keeping the handful of people who commit most of the city’s dangerous crimes behind bars is what legislators say is the quickest path to reining in 2023’s scourge of robberies, record-high carjackings and shootings that brought about the most homicides in over a quarter century.
“It seems clear that a lacking sense of accountability has contributed to the current circumstances in the District,” Council member Brooke Pinto said during the hearing. “Secure DC includes many proposals that specifically aim to close this ‘revolving door.’ These proposals focus on deterring the small number of individuals who repeatedly engage in violent crime and temporarily holding individuals who continue to engage in violent crime.”
Judges have had greater leeway under a temporary measure passed last summer to keep both violent adult and juvenile suspects in jail before their trials, but results have been mixed.
More suspects have been ordered held before trial on charges of carjacking, robbery and other nonfatal offenses, but the emergency legislation did little to reverse the existing spikes in major crimes during the second half of 2023.
But proponents of the anti-crime package point out that offenses seen as precursors to more deadly actions — like being arrested with illegal guns — continue to result in suspects being released on bond.
Opponents say pretrial holds disproportionately affect Black suspects.
Frankie Seabron, who works with prison abolition group Harriet’s Wildest Dream, told The Washington Times that prior to the emergency legislation, the difference between pretrial holds for Black defendants and White defendants was 11:1.
That ratio jumped to 17:1 in the past six months, according to Ms. Seabron, who said previous cases where a defendant was placed on parole — such as theft — are now being ordered held at the D.C. jail.
The ratio could increase in the coming months as the Secure DC bill looks to crack down on retail theft.
One of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposals included in the bill seeks to enact stiff penalties on the leaders of retail theft crews.
Ringleaders could get up to 15 years behind bars, according to the proposed language, and the felony theft threshold would be cut from $1,000 to $500 under the bill as well.
The mayor also wants to give Metropolitan Police the authority to declare “drug-free” zones in specific areas for up to five days to disrupt criminal activity.
Other punitive aspects of the bill include changing the legal definition of carjacking to assist prosecutors and making permanent the “endangerment with a firearm” offense. Before she put together the new crime package, Ms. Pinto said a shooting that didn’t kill or injure anyone would likely end with the suspect only being charged with misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
But a portion of the new legislation is dedicated to redirecting potential shooting victims — and potential shooters themselves — away from a life of crime.
That aim comes about in the twice-monthly shooting reviews that police would be required to undertake.
Under the proposal, MPD and the deputy mayor for Public Safety would look at all recent shootings to identify any chances for retaliation and how officials could best intervene.
It’s a similar model to California’s successful Oakland Ceasefire program, in which social services — job programs and life coaching, among other opportunities — are offered to those at-risk of becoming involved in a shooting.
Oakland Ceasefire has reported that clients who accept the program’s assistance usually drift away from violent behaviors. Those who didn’t got special attention from violent-crime investigators.
The program is credited with a 43% drop in Oakland homicides between 2012 and 2017, according to the California Partnership for Safe Communities. When Oakland leaders began to roll back its Ceasefire program shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, homicides resurged in the East Bay city.
Ms. Bowser has thrown her support behind the anti-crime package, but her office has been criticized by council members, researchers and residents alike for the performance of the city’s existing anti-violence initiatives.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have been quick to blame Ms. Bowser and other city leaders for the sense of lawlessness in the nation’s capital.
Last year, GOP lawmakers led a bipartisan rebuke of the city’s overhauled criminal code and held multiple hearings on public safety in the District.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, gave a floor speech last week lambasting “Washington’s radical local government” for defunding the police and bashed prosecutors for declining so many cases.
Following through on the bill’s proposals is a top priority for Ms. Pinto if the legislation is approved during the council’s Jan. 23 meeting.
“Oversight is a very important part of my role as a council member and chairing this committee, and I will continue to push our agencies to ensure that they’re implementing the law as intended,” Ms. Pinto said.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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