Violent crime in D.C. has trended downward since last year. D.C. police and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office have attributed the trend in part to a major piece of crime legislation the D.C. Council passed last year.
Councilmember Brooke Pinto put forward a new plan on Monday to keep momentum going. Her four-part “Peace DC” plan has four major components, including calling for a merger of the city’s violence interruption programs.
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WATCH HERE“We have to build on that progress and continue to fill gaps in our system and do more to promote peace so that everybody in Washington, D.C. can be safe,” said Pinto, who is chair of the council’s public safety committee.
Peace DC’s four main parts call for:
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- reducing recidivism
- supporting the public safety workforce
- working to retain departments’ most senior members
Pinto explained, “You can be a firefighter, EMS, police officer or Department of Corrections facility worker and retain your retirement benefits once you earn them but still stay on the force and earn your salary. It’s something that costs the District very little money, because we would have to backfill that position anyway.”
The Peace DC plan would merge the D.C. Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement violence interrupter program with the Cure the Streets program operated by the D.C. Office of the Attorney General.
“Both programs are doing important work. It does not make sense from an efficiency perspective or from an efficacy perspective to have these two agencies not working together,” Pinto said.
The merger would bring both programs under the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.
Bowser supports the plan.
“I never believed that we should have a splintered group for violence interruption,” she said.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb also said he supports the merger plan, “provided that in any such merger there are assurances that the program will be well-funded, supported, and effective and that there is rigorous oversight and leadership,” he said in a statement.
Cure the Streets faces criticism after one of its interrupters, Cotey Wynn, was charged with murder in a D.C. nightclub shooting from 2023.
Hearings on Peace DC will be held throughout April before it heads to the council for a vote.
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