After record-high crime in D.C. in 2023 drew national attention, 2024 has been a different story so far.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith spoke live on News4 Today about the numbers and what the department is doing to keep the trend moving in the right direction.
In 2023, D.C. experienced the most violent year in more than two decades. A spike in homicides and carjackings led to congressional hearings and resulted in newly approved crime legislation from Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council. They authorized police tactics including designating drug-free zones in high-crime areas.
Smith said the new law will help police increase public safety.
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“I hear the public when they say they want their communities back, and it’s our responsibility as a public-safety entity to do that, and this bill, this law, will help us do that,” she said.
D.C. had 274 homicides in 2023 – the most in 26 years – and close to 1,000 carjackings – the most ever recorded in a year.
Here's a look at the DC crime drop so far this year
In the first two-and-a-half months of 2024, the numbers are down:
- homicides are down 32%
- carjackings are down 14%
- assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 34%
- overall violent crime is down 17%
Smith credited the new crime law and new deployments of officers for the drop in crime.
“We look at all of the data – intelligence-led data – to ensure that we are assigning our officers in the appropriate locations, and then we stood up a homicide-reduction partnership plan,” she said.
MPD is working on stopping any summertime increase in crime before it starts, Smith said.
“We are still thriving. The culture of D.C. is still where it was many years ago. What I want people to know is, you have a public safety team that is very passionate about reducing crime. and we’re not gonna wait for the summer to do that; we’re starting right now,” she said.
She acknowledged that hiring and retaining officers is a challenge. The department has 3,323 officers now, and Smith said having 4,000 officers would ideal. A newly launched in-person recruiting team is at work in D.C. and across the U.S.
Despite the officer shortage, arrests for carjackings are up 88% over this time last year.
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Smith said no one was arrested in connection to the drug-free zones last week. The department announced the locations of two new drug-free zones where enhanced enforcement will start on Wednesday, March 20. They will be in Northeast, around the 1200 block of Mount Olivet Road NE, and in Northwest, around the 4000 block of Georgia Avenue NW.
