With a 43 percent spike in homicides this year, Mayor Muriel Bowser is expected to ask the D.C. Council on Thursday for additional powers to search people on probation, in a bid to prevent crime by repeat offenders.
Bowser briefed D.C. Council members on the plan on Wednesday, which Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kevin Donahue said will have three parts.
"One is giving police more tools and resources," he said. "Two is focusing more effectively on a very small number of individuals with very violent histories."
And three is "doing a smarter job in having every agency in government, including our social service agencies, work with police for the betterment of communities," Donahue said.
The policy would allow police to search and detain people who are on probation for violent crimes and gun-related crimes.
Of the suspects and victims in homicides in the District this year so far, 22 homicide arrestees were under probation or supervision. Among the victims, 20 were under supervision or probation, the Metropolitan Police Department said. In 10 of these cases, the arrestee or victim previously had been charged with murder.
And 45 percent of suspects arrested this year for murder had a prior gun charge, police said.
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"The idea behind it is that we have to step up the pressure on gun violence," D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.
Donahue said the plan will not violate ex-offenders' rights.
"This notion that somehow police are going to be given the ability to do warrant-less knock-downs of doors to search people's houses, of all people with criminal records, is simply not true," he said.
