The District’s chief of police is blaming an influx of out-of-town guns for the city’s 203 homicides in 2022 — the first time in nearly two decades that the nation’s capital topped the 200 homicide mark in consecutive years
The last time the city saw such violence was when it recorded 262 and 246 homicides in 2002 and 2003, respectively, according to data from the Metropolitan Police Department.
“Last year, 203 people lost their lives to senseless violence in our city,” Chief Robert Contee said in a statement. “That’s 203 too many, period.”
D.C.’s top cop attributed the violence to illegal guns entering the District. On a more optimistic note, he did acknowledge that violent crime is down 7% overall from 2021 and property crime is down 3% in that same period.
The D.C. Police Union painted a grimmer picture when zooming out on current crime trends.
There was a 40% increase in homicides over the most recent three-year period (2020-22) when compared to the previous three-year period (2017-19), according to the union. Carjackings have gone up 177% and armed robberies up 37% from 2020-22 when compared to 2017-19 as well.
The union sharply criticized D.C. Council member Charles Allen last week once the city crossed the 200-homicide threshold, saying the council member’s approach to public safety facilitated this development.
“There is no politician more responsible for all this violence than Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen, who has been the champion of some of the most anti-police and pro-criminal legislation anywhere in the country,” the union said in a statement. “Allen has turned a blind eye to concerned residents and public safety experts, rather he chooses to cater to an activist crowd whose agenda is anti-police whatever the cost.”
Mr. Allen, the D.C. Council’s chair for the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, recently spearheaded a major overhaul of the city’s criminal code that has yet to be signed into law.
Critics argued that the code reforms are too generous to serious offenders, offering criminals early release from prison and removing most mandatory minimums in sentencing.
The councilmember also advocated for reducing police funding in the wake of the 2020 protests following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody.
The union said that the passage of “emergency police reform” legislation in June 2020 has resulted in over 600 officers leaving MPD since, with most pointing to the council’s treatment of law enforcement as their primary reason.
Mr. Allen responded to the D.C. Police Union with a statement of his own, saying “it makes me terribly sad that the hardworking men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department have such lackluster representation.”
The statement went on to criticize Fraternal Orders of Police throughout the nation for using “tragic milestones to lash out and divide us” and said that the D.C. union is mostly upset about three-year-old legislation that prevents them from negotiating their discipline policies during collective bargaining.
Mr. Allen added that the council fully funded Chief Robert Contee’s $526 million budget request, instituted a $20,000 recruitment bonus for new officers and expanded D.C. police’s cadet program to 150 total slots.
The union pointed out additional statistics detailing the District’s current crime situation.
While homicides were down in 2022 (203) compared to 2021 (226), they had been trending upward since 2018, according to MPD data. Homicides jumped from 116 in 2017 to 160 in 2018, before a slight increase to 166 in 2019 and then another significant jump to 198 in 2020.
Homicides were up 440% in Ward 2 between 2020-22 when compared to 2017-19, according to the union. Armed robberies were up in multiple wards as well when comparing those two three-year periods, with Ward 1 seeing a 41% increase in the crime, Ward 7 seeing a 34% increase and Ward 8 seeing a 37% increase.
The District also saw 485 carjackings in 2022.
“We urge Mayor [Muriel] Bowser to veto any and all legislation that is sent to her by this misguided Council,” the union said in its statement. “It is well past time for the Council to reconsider ‘reform’ policies that do nothing to improve public safety, as many leaders in other cities have done.”
The proposed criminal code reforms, formally titled the Revised Criminal Code Act, await a review by Mayor Muriel Bowser after being passed by the Council in the fall.
The mayor has been critical about aspects of the proposed code. Her response to the proposed legislation is due by Wednesday.
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