DC has a new police chief. Now, she’ll have to contend with the crime-friendly DC Council
Tom Rogan
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Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Pamela Smith to become the District of Columbia‘s new chief of police on Monday. Former chief of the U.S. Park Police, Smith is a good choice. She’s a smart leader who rose up the ranks and is respected by police officers. Smith seems to recognize the deep challenge facing Washington as it contends with rising crime.
Unfortunately, Smith will also have to deal with the Council of the District of Columbia’s utter disregard for reality and disrespect for the police. The devil is in the data. Violent crime in the nation’s capital is up 36% as of this point last year. Robbery rates are up 58%, and homicides are up 18%. Vehicle theft is up 118%. These statistics underline the fundamental problem driving Washington crime: a sense of impunity on the part of far too many habitual offenders. A particular challenge is too many teenagers, some young teenagers, who see in crime the means to an easy buck, prestige, and excitement.
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Smith recognized this challenge on Monday. The new police chief observed that “there has to be some accountability for the parents. I think that’s the part that we’re missing, being able to reach out and engage the parents just a little bit more to ensure we can build a good legion of leaders with our juveniles.” This is positive rhetoric. Still, Smith must know that the only way there will be accountability for parents is if parents are held criminally responsible for allowing their children to engage in truancy and crime sprees.
Unfortunately, U.S. Attorney for Washington Matthew Graves doesn’t appear up to the challenge. While his office has faced major workload pressure to prosecute Jan. 6 cases alongside other Washington crimes, Graves has hesitated to prosecute in many other cases. Indeed, Washington failed to prosecute in 67% of all 2022 arrests.
It shows.
We gained two more examples of Washington’s crime frenzy over the weekend.
First, a 27-year-old biking enthusiast was robbed and shot to death early Saturday morning. The second example came via a group of criminals circling Washington’s Adams Morgan neighborhood, looking for people to rob. Apparently unconcerned about being stopped by the police, the group robbed one group and then returned to rob those who had come to their aid! A victim reports, “We then called 911 and were on hold for six minutes and never picked up.”
This 911 problem is a familiar one in Washington. The 911 call center’s motto might be “We answer the call,” but the 911 call center regularly fails to do that. I can speak from personal experience that many 911 dispatchers either come across as rude or incompetent. One Washington police officer once told me that the dispatch center regularly sends officers to the wrong location. Bowser was forced to remove the dispatch center’s former chief, Karima Holmes, in December. Bowser had inexplicably stood by Holmes even amid findings of various catastrophic failures.
Sadly, where Bowser has actually pushed for more police officers and tougher penalties for habitual offenders, the D.C. Council has often taken the opposite approach. Although longtime councilmembers have sought to obfuscate their role in creating the conditions for the crime spree that is now underway, the record is clear.
Take Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.
In 2021, Mendelson worked with the council’s most ardent weak-on-crime enthusiast, Charles Allen, to approve only half of Bowser’s budget request to hire more police officers. Mendelson claimed this approach was preferable because it diverted more than $5 million to hire “violence interrupters” instead of hiring more police officers. The crime statistics suggest those “violence interrupters” aren’t interrupting very much. Mendelson also endorsed a reform panel’s recommendation to introduce wholesale anti-police measures in the district, claiming they were “a bit edgy, for some, but necessary.” Mendelson more recently admitted, “You can get away with murder in this city,” apparently forgetting his role in fostering the conditions for that impunity.
It’s just the tip of the D.C. Council crime policy iceberg.
Consider Allen and Brianne Nadeau. The mastermind of an astonishingly idiotic criminal code reform (fortunately now suspended) that would have dramatically weakened penalties for various crimes, Allen memorably blamed “misinformation” for public concerns over his reform program. Nadeau, who won’t even respond to constituents when they reach out to her office to raise concerns over crime, similarly claimed, “Do not believe the hype. The council is not tying the hands of our law enforcement officials or making crime worse.”
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Washington crime statistics tell a different tale. So do the stories from many residents of Washington police officers responding only after long delays: a symptom, I’d suggest, of a police force that doesn’t believe district leaders have its back.
Smith has a big challenge ahead of her.