Washington Mayor, Council Struggle to Reach Common Ground on Criminal Code Reform

The chairman of the District of Columbia City Council said he has not been briefed on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s new legislation to address rising crime in the district, but he and the other council members share the mayor’s concerns about public safety.

“I don’t know a single member of the council who’s not concerned about public safety,” Chairman Phil Mendelson said.  “And if there are opportunities to make the city safer, we want them.”

However, the mayor and D.C. City Council have not been able to agree on the best way to reduce crime in the city. Earlier this year, the mayor vetoed the council’s Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022 over concerns about some provisions in the updated code, including insufficient penalties for violent crimes. The council then overrode the executive veto.

After the veto, the mayor announced a public safety summit. The mayor held the summit earlier this month with local and federal public safety officials and partners to discuss what improvements need to be made to ensure public safety.

“We have heard from our public safety partners and from members of the community about the gaps that exist in our public safety ecosystem—this package of legislation will address those gaps,” Mayor Bowser told reporters at a May 15 press conference.

According to the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime in D.C. is up 14 percent in 2023 compared with the previous year. There has been an 11 percent increase in homicides, a 44 percent rise in sex abuse cases, a 2 percent increase in assaults with a dangerous weapon, and a 20 percent jump in robberies.

However, Mendelson suggested that increasing penalties for crimes would not prevent those crimes.

“We look to longer sentences as if that’s the solution to criminal activity. And the research is pretty clear that there isn’t that effect. So it sounds good, [but] the effect isn’t the same,” the council chairman said at a press conference the same day.

Among other provisions, the mayor’s new public safety bill would increase penalties for violent crimes that target residents with physical or mental impairments. It would also expand protections for transit and for-hire vehicle employees, transit passengers, and people at rec centers.

Mendelson has a different solution to lower crime rates.

“What I’ve said over and over again is [that] one thing that would have a more direct effect on crime would be increasing the case closure rate,” said Mendelson. “The closure rate for homicides is, in my view, appallingly too low. The closure rate for robberies is appallingly too low. Increase the closure rate. That’s not a matter of the length of the sentence, but actually getting people arrested and convicted. I subscribe to the theory of swift and certain justice.”

According to Metropolitan Police Department’s data, there was a 62 percent closure rate for homicides in 2022.

The mayor said she would like to see her new legislation passed before the Council breaks for the summer by the end of June, which Mendelson said will not happen because the bill needs to be considered carefully with feedback given at a public hearing.

The mayor’s new bill comes after the U.S. Congress twice passed disapproval resolutions that would override D.C. crime bills.  In March, Congress passed a resolution disapproving the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022.  President Joe Biden signed the resolution, angering some Democrats.

In May, House and Senate passed another resolution disapproving the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022. This time, Biden has vowed to block the resolution.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) questions witnesses during the first public hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 8, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Republicans in the House Oversight and Accountability Committee accuse D.C. officials of being soft on crime in the midst of a multi-year spike.

Congressional oversight of the district is written into the Constitution. Lawmakers have used methods like budget riders to alter D.C. laws on issues ranging from abortion to marijuana legalization.

The D.C. City Council said its Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022 aims to boost police accountability and transparency, while Republicans argued that the law puts unnecessary restrictions on police at a time when the city grapples with rising crime.

Council member Brooke Pinto, the chairwoman of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, said modernizing the district’s criminal code will continue to be a priority and the issue will likely be taken up again in the fall.

“I don’t want continued disagreements over [a] small portion of policy matters to undermine the mission of modernizing the code,” said Pinto.