The Metropolitan Police Department yesterday launched the first phase of this year’s All Hands on Deck crime-fighting initiative — an effort that comes as officers also are working to stop a recent rash of shootings in the city.
“I would have liked to have had a crystal ball and scheduled it a few weeks earlier, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have it now,” police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said. “It’s a great time for us to all go out and work together.”
It is the sixth phase in total of the All Hands on Deck initiative under Chief Lanier, who developed the program to combat the District’s typical spike in summer crime and to avoid declaring a crime emergency in the city like her predecessor, Charles H. Ramsey.
This weekend’s effort is the first of five phases planned for this year and will end tomorrow. It places the majority of the roughly 4,000-member police department on patrol shifts during the weekend, with the exception of about 160 officers who were allowed to voluntarily take alternate days off. Critics say the initiative reduces police available for weekday patrols.
During All Hands on Deck last year, the entire department worked patrol shifts over five weekends, and officers scheduled to be off on those weekends had to reschedule. The initiative led to more than 2,400 arrests.
“It was widely successful last year,” said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who attended a roll call in Northeast yesterday to open the All Hands initiative, along with Chief Lanier and dozens of officers and recruits. “The response you’re gonna get from the community is gonna be amazing, just like it was last year.”
Chief Lanier said officers this weekend will focus on traffic enforcement, nuisance crime abatement, warrant service and reducing violent crime.
Some also will be passing out literature to residents on gangs and crews as well as the chief’s Safe Homes initiative, which is expected to begin by mid-June.
Officials initially said that initiative would allow police to go door-to-door in high-crime neighborhoods and ask residents to search their homes for guns, but Chief Lanier later scaled back the program amid privacy concerns.
“The last goal is just for the positive community interaction,” she said. “It’s really just kind of a chance to hit all the priorities … and build on that community relationship at one time.”
Robberies and burglaries in the city year-to-date have risen compared with last year at this time, according to preliminary police statistics.
There were 50 homicides in the city as of yesterday, compared with 54 last year. However, there were 18 homicides in April alone, nine of them in the Fifth District.
After four homicides last weekend, Chief Lanier placed 1,200 officers on patrol through the week — three times the normal number.
The All Hands initiative has drawn criticism for leaving district commanders short-staffed for weekday patrols. The D.C. Public Employee Relations Board also is expected to rule soon on a complaint from the police union against Chief Lanier that she improperly rescheduled patrol shifts during All Hands last year.
Kristopher Baumann, who heads the union labor committee that represents the officers, has said that the All Hands program is an ineffective use of officers and takes away resources that district commanders need at other times of the week.
“I think my criticisms remain valid,” Mr. Baumann said. “If we really need more police, then we need to be out there recruiting them.”
Assistant Chief Alfred Durham acknowledged in April that the move to give some officers days off this weekend was made in part because of such criticism.
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