The D.C. Council will consider several public safety bills as it returns from recess following a violent summer.
D.C. has seen significant increases in homicides, carjackings and robberies this year.
Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, is introducing her Secure DC Plan – 16 separate bills aimed at reducing crime.
“Ensuring accountability when folks commit violent crimes in our city, doing a better job to prevent crime from happening and end cycles of violence, and strengthening our government coordination and supports for our agencies,” Pinto said.
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Several of the bills are permanent versions of temporary crime legislation the Council passed in July before its recess. Pinto said they are already working.
“We've seen a 25% reduction in violent crime in the months since that bill passed as compared to the previous month,” she said.
Pinto hopes several new bills also become law.
“We're starting new programs for a blue light program for our transit system so that people can wait at the bus stop or at the Metro and feel safe,” she said.
One of the provisions in Pinto’s plan would enable Metro to enforce the civil fine for fare evasion.
Some of Pinto’s bills have received push back from community members and advocates.
One would require people on supervised release or probation to submit to searches, expand the definition of a carjacking, make it easier for judges to detain suspects before trial and require judges to file written findings if they release suspects pretrial.
Patricia Sulton, who advocates on equal justice matters, calls the legislation a step backwards.
“It's deeply disappointing to witness our city leadership focus more on appearing ‘tough on crime’ rather than genuinely being ‘tough on crime,’” she wrote. “True public safety will come when we address root causes, invest in community resources and enact data-driven preventive measures.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser declined commenting on specifics of Pinto’s legislation until she has a chance to review it.
“There are many public safety bills that we've introduced this year that the Council hasn't moved on, including our Safer, Stronger bill,” she said. “They took the main tenants for Safer, Stronger and passed by emergency, and so I'm hopeful that the entire bill will get full consideration and move through the Council.”
D.C. Courts sent a letter to Pinto raising concerns about aspects of the legislation.
“Without knowing the legal basis for California’s law permitting individuals on probation, parole and pre-trial release be subject to warrantless searches which the proposed legislation seeks to implement in the District of Columbia, the proposed legislation appears to violate the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on warrantless searches of individuals without probable cause. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968),” the letter reads, in part.
D.C. Courts also says requiring judges to issue written findings when releasing suspects before trial is not feasible because it “would significantly increase the workload on the Superior Court Criminal Division associate and magistrate judges, and their law clerks of the Superior Court.
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