D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s public safety team and federal partners, including D.C. Superior Court’s chief judge and the U.S. attorney who prosecutes the vast majority of cases in the District, met with dozens of law enforcement and business organizations at a public safety summit Wednesday.
Bowser called the summit to find solutions to the rise in crime in D.C.
The U.S. attorney’s office recently acknowledged it doesn’t prosecute about 67% of the people D.C. police arrest.
Most of those cases are non-violent misdemeanors, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said. He pointed to how police make those arrests and D.C.’s crime lab being closed as reasons cases don’t get prosecuted.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
“If we cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspected substance is a drug, then we can’t prosecute,” he said. “That’s been a big part of the story.”
Bowser pushed back at the crime lab closure being an issue, saying federal prosecutors can have outside labs test drugs.
Police Chief Robert Contee also pushed back.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
“When they make that decision not to move that case forward, it doesn’t mean that the police officers did something wrong,” he said.
National Center for Juvenile Justice Reform Executive Director Rahim Jenkins, who spent years in D.C. government working with young people convicted of crimes and now advocates for justice reform, hopes some change comes from Wednesday’s summit.
“This untreated trauma that we’re looking at, this is a very angry generation, and I think that we need to retrain, rethink our intervention methods,” he said. “There’s a lot of money being spent and there’s a lot of things that are not working.”
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
