Last month, the Editorial Board, plus columnists and outside experts, took a hard look at who is responsible for the District’s high crime rates. We asked readers what would make them feel safer in the city and region they call home. This is what they told us.
Pull parents into crime prevention
I have lived in Washington all my life. I am 69 and have lived in the same house since 1963. There is just rampant crime everywhere. For the first time I can remember, my next-door neighbor was the victim of an armed robbery on our street just half a block from my home. Violation of traffic rules has become routine: People go through red lights and don’t stop at stop signs, and all kinds of illegal vehicles are on the road, including all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes.
I rarely shop in D.C. anymore and certainly not in my neighborhood; I shop in nearby Virginia, where I feel safer. I rarely go out at night. I used to walk in my neighborhood for exercise; I don’t do that anymore because people have been robbed by young people pulling up in cars or converging around them.
We need more police officers so they are visible and can respond to crime as it is happening. I called 911 when some young people were trying to break into a neighbor’s house and then started harassing me — but no one ever came.
There needs to be accountability when someone commits a crime. I think things have gone too far in removing accountability for perpetrators. There needs to be much more attention paid to working with parents and families of youths who have been involved in criminal activity or are at risk of becoming involved. Though I appreciate the provisions in the new crime law that increase accountability for youths involved in violent crime, we need to do more on the preventive side.
Most important, we need to evaluate programs such as violence interrupters to determine whether they are effective and, if not, stop funding them and fund programs that do work.
Hire more high-quality cops
We need to hire more police officers, but not at the expense of less-than-extensive background checks. We must ensure those hired meet stringent requirements, including those formerly employed by other jurisdictions. Anyone who falls short runs the risk of undermining all law enforcement agencies. We don’t need individuals who dishonor the badge.
Susan Gundling, Washington
There are immediate steps that can be taken to stem the tide of crime, among them more police on the streets, but I think we also need to take a longer view.
First: guns, guns, guns. We must find a way to decrease guns on the streets. It’s crazy.
Second: I wonder about the connection between school truancy and increased crime. We know that increased access to tutoring can help keep kids in school. Could tutoring and after-school activities that engage young people in their school communities also reduce violence? I think it’s worth looking at.
Debra Sternberg, Washington
Invest in livable communities
I lived in Ward 2 for six years and served one term as an advisory neighborhood commissioner. Last year, I sold my condo and bought a house in Ward 7. Not too long after I moved, a child was shot while committing a crime in front of the building next door to my condo building. Nothing like that has happened in my new neighborhood.
I would like to see the city invest in new crime-fighting technology, such as drones, so officers are not always at risk. I would like the city to consider on a case-by-case basis which juveniles need to be charged as adults. The city and the federal government need to clearly define who is responsible for what as it relates to crime so there’s not always the deflection and finger-pointing. It’s exhausting reading about it.
But above all, I would like to see the city and the federal government comprehensively address the systemic injustice and institutional racism that got us all here. In Wards 7 and 8 specifically, it’s long past time to rectify the lack of exceptional educational options (notice I didn’t say merely “good”), grocery stores, small businesses, clean streets, regular maintenance for city-owned housing, and all the things that make or break a community.
This isn’t to say the community itself bears no responsibility, but the city and the federal government need to be held accountable for years of neglect.
Give kids places to be and things to do
I’ve worked in downtown Washington for almost 30 years. The saddest part of D.C.’s inability to curb crime is that kids and teens are committing so many of these offenses and causing harm not only to others but also to themselves. We need to face the reality that, as a society, it is time to invest in kids and teens. It’s much harder to be a parent in 2024, so we should be doing much more to help out. That could mean extending the school day and providing after-school programming for all kids and teens so they have a safe and engaging place to be. This could be organized sports, music, art, dance and other clubs. Iceland has tried this, and it has worked — showing the positive impact of keeping kids and teens busy and engaged. We could do that here in the United States to the benefit of the next generation.
Look at the data before panicking
I feel safer than I did a year ago. The numbers are dropping. Emotions don’t always respond to data, but we can reorient our thinking if we do our own research into the statistics. To reduce crime in D.C., the city should address school attendance, poverty and homelessness. More pervasive than the feeling that the city doesn’t care about crime is the feeling that the city doesn’t care about citizens.
Streetlights and lighter gun restrictions
First, don’t underestimate the power of streetlights. Poorly lit streets are conducive to crime. I lived in Tennessee before moving to the District, and I saw firsthand how much safer individual streets became when the city put up bright LED lights. Drug dealers moved to other locations, and I did not worry about bad people hiding in the shadows. Light also raises the psyche in the neighborhood. It is a cheap investment that makes a huge difference.
Second, make sure there are real consequences for crimes and emphasize prosecution. The recent crime bill was a good start, but we can go further. If D.C. Council members are compelled to reach a middle ground on shoplifting, they should use conspiracy statutes to go hard after people who involve others in their shoplifting plans. If stealing $300 is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, the conspiracy to steal $300 should be a felony punishable by up to five years. This would remain soft on individual thefts but crack down on the organized crime rings that make it feel as though stores are being looted. And, following from this thinking, D.C. should make sure prosecutorial discretion doesn’t undermine the rule of law. We should strive to be smart on crime, not “tough” or “soft” on it, and that starts with prosecutors fulfilling their role in the adversarial system.
Finally, I would make it a little bit easier to own and carry a gun legally. In Tennessee, I had a lifetime carry permit, and shooting at the range with my dad was a recreational activity where we spent quality time. My 9mm handgun is still at my parents’ home in Tennessee because I am a law-abiding gun owner who wants to do this the right way (unlike the criminals who commit gun violence). But I would feel safer knowing there were good guys around who were responsible gun owners and could protect us while we waited for the police should something horrible happen.
Alexander Ioannidis, Washington
My wife and I feel less safe because of the rampant carjackings and shootings near the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro station just blocks from our home. We no longer take nightly walks. During the pandemic, we walked frequently. But one evening, we were walking up 13th Street when more than a dozen gunshots rang out across the street and four young people ran by, got in a car and drove off.
D.C. should take a page from Michigan’s recent prosecutions of the parents of a school shooter and hold parents responsible for the actions of their children. I think that’s the only way to counter the peer pressure these kids face to engage in carjackings, stealing from the CVS in Columbia Heights and other bad acts. Once kids know that a parent could be held responsible for their actions, they might think twice about such behavior.
Attention to the little things
There are so many ways to make D.C. feel safer.
Require police to investigate lower-level crimes such as porch-pirating and open use of drugs. D.C. police need to publish statistics on the follow-up for all police reports, including whether they spoke with the victim or pursued any leads.
The city should establish a juvenile curfew and investigate truancy more aggressively. People age 17 and under need to be home, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian if they are out after 9 on a school night and 11 p.m. any other night. The threshold for referring families to the Child and Family Services Agency should be five unexcused absences in a school year instead of 10; 10 unexplained absences in a year rather than 15 should trigger a referral to the Family Court Social Services Division of D.C. Superior Court and the Juvenile Section of the Office of the Attorney General.
To deter carjackers and reckless drivers, repeal the city’s law limiting hot pursuits.
Tackle quality-of-life issues. Prohibit panhandling on the Metro or within 10 feet of any bus stop. Increase spending on street and sidewalk cleaning as well as clearing vacant lots. I’ve noticed that in other parts of the world, such as London, there is a real emphasis on keeping the city clean, and that it creates an atmosphere where people feel more invested in the city itself.
Use flexibility wisely. Revise the D.C. criminal code to allow for more degrees of offenses. We can calibrate the code to create penalties that are more proportionate to crimes. In some instances, penalties should include mandatory restitution and community service, with the option to resentence offenders who fail to comply with the terms of the community service or restitution order absent good cause. Judges should have the option to allow cash bail for felonies and first-degree misdemeanors.
Better coordination on efforts in progress
The strategy for addressing D.C.’s crime problem in the March 18 editorial, “Crime is falling almost everywhere except D.C. Who’s responsible?,” missed some key factors. First, in 2022, D.C.’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council commissioned a Gun Violence Reduction Strategic Plan, which targets a relatively small group of individuals who are at highest risk of committing violence. Since then, similar strategies have successfully reduced gun violence in major cities across the country, including nearby Baltimore, while D.C. has not meaningfully implemented its plan.
Authors of the plan found that D.C.’s unique challenges include lack of political will, leadership and coordination among public safety leaders. Notably, the mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and Office of Gun Violence Prevention have been without permanent leadership for nearly a year, amid soaring gun violence. Unfortunately, the mayor has a long history of failing to implement evidence-based public safety solutions — even those mandated by law — as the Office of the D.C. Auditor has pointed out multiple times.
The new Secure D.C. law, meanwhile, doesn’t address D.C.’s lack of leadership and coordination on public safety. And it fails to address the root causes of crime, a matter on which the editorial is also silent. To meaningfully address our crime problem, we should learn from those most impacted by crime how to prevent it, demand public safety solutions proven to work and hold policymakers accountable for implementing them.
Jody Kent Lavy, Washington
Zero tolerance for carjackings
Too often when D.C. officials talk about armed carjacking, they seem to focus on the lack of adequate recreational opportunities, unequal distribution of public services by ward, disparities in the quality of public education and misguided young people.
In contrast, the actual victims of armed carjackings and those who fear they will be targets see armed carjacking as a violent crime requiring the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of the criminal. They see this crime as a personal violation and an attack on the prospects of Washington as an attractive place to live, work or visit.
Committing to reducing armed carjackings will require identifying them as serious crimes with profound consequences. Current and potential carjackers need to know police will catch them and prosecutors will employ the full extent of the law against them. Juvenile armed carjackers need to know that the justice system will prosecute them as adults, without opportunities for diversion programs or other second-chance options. D.C. should make clear that armed carjackings are crimes the community will not tolerate or excuse.
Peter A. Michel, Alexandria
Bring back beat cops and enforce traffic laws
To reduce crime in D.C., I would get the police out of their cars and onto the streets. Sitting in their cars, officers can all too easily be on their phones or otherwise distracted. Even if they are stationed on the street with their cars, they should be outside their vehicles, visible to the public and paying attention. I would ask that they enforce respectful behavior of all residents and not ignore disrespectful behavior. If police treat people well, maybe it will catch on.
I would enforce traffic laws. If the city allows people to flout rules regarding double parking, reckless driving and inconsiderate behavior, that disinterest reinforces that bad behavior has no consequences and people can do whatever they want. Don’t allow delivery drivers to double park when making a delivery. If we don’t enforce the little things, aren’t we inviting bigger and bolder transgressions?
If we enforce respect and respect ourselves, maybe we can make a difference.
Douglas Singer, Washington
