This year has seen the most homicides in the District since 2002, along with a surge in robberies and carjackings. Crime is topic A in neighborhood chat groups, Capitol Hill staff meetings, and among restaurant and small-business owners. While police alone cannot solve all the issues, it’s clear that the Metropolitan Police Department — currently fielding just 3,328 police officers — needs to be bigger. A decade ago, then-Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier warned of increased danger if ranks fell below 3,800 officers. The city is learning that painful lesson now.
To help with recruiting, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) bumped up the force’s signing bonus to $25,000. She needs to reexamine pay overall. The annual starting D.C. police salary is $66,419, which is about $10,000 below the median annual salary in the city and about $15,000 below the average FBI starting pay range. The MPD is wisely using civilians in office roles and should continue finding ways to keep sworn officers where they can do the most good. But staffing won’t be fixed overnight in part because a crash hiring spree would probably lead to lowered standards. The D.C. force — and many others struggling with depleted ranks — have to embrace smart policing with data and technology.
We witnessed the MPD’s implementation of two force multipliers: more “eyes in the sky” and an upgraded command center. Cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detectors and helicopters make a big difference. Cameras help deter crime and solve cases. While we were out in a police cruiser, license plate readers detected multiple stolen vehicles. Back at headquarters, when reports of a shooting came in, police could examine the area with GPS and look for nearby cameras to see whether any culprits were fleeing.
The District has just over 350 police cameras. The city also offers residents and small businesses rebates to purchase cameras of their own. Still, for a city its size, the federal capital has far fewer police cameras than New York or Chicago, and it needs more. Drones are worth exploring, but the many airspace restrictions imposed after 9/11 make using them difficult in D.C. Concerns about the District monitoring people in a Chinese-style surveillance state are overblown. The D.C. police do not use facial recognition software and can do only limited “real time” watches.
Still, cameras can do only so much. Major police departments across the country are enhancing their command centers to be more data-driven, creating central hubs for multiple law enforcement teams. Since late July, D.C. police have operated a Violent Crime Suppression Initiative on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights to surge more officers and resources onto the streets during peak crime hours. It’s a centralized response that supplements the traditional neighborhood beat cops. “Be visible,” the commander tells these extra officers. When not on specific assignments, they park at hot spots to deter crime.
At the Joint Operations Command Center, a team monitors calls and other data to decide where to deploy the helicopter and squad cars. Restrictions imposed by the D.C. Council on the ability to chase fleeing culprits at street level make the chopper essential. The helicopter routinely follows unsuspecting carjackers until it’s safe to apprehend them. Pilots say there has been a roughly 25 percent increase in flights this year.
Robberies and carjackings, while still at unacceptable levels, are slowing, and officers are beginning to express optimism.
Running the helicopter is expensive. A police spokesperson said the annual operating cost alone is $1.4 million. It’s hard to conduct a strict cost-benefit analysis, but it would ideally be available 24 hours a day until crime subsides. While we rode in a police cruiser, we could hear officers on the radio asking for Falcon’s assistance, but the helicopter was unavailable.
Multiple law enforcement agencies operate in the District: MPD, Park Police, Capitol Police, Metro Transit Police, Secret Service, Homeland Security, the FBI and others. Communication among them has long been a problem. Chief Smith, who previously led the Park Police, just announced the creation of a real-time policing center where representatives of several agencies can sit side by side. Modeled after similar centers in New York City and parts of New Jersey, it will become operational early next year.
It’s been a terrible year for crime in D.C. Doubling down on what works is essential to change that for 2024.
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