DC mayor, police chief to testify before House committee over crime increase

WASHINGTON – D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is about to testify on Capitol Hill subsequent month in regards to the rise in crime within the metropolis. 

The mayor despatched a letter to the chairman of the Home Oversight and Reform Committee Wednesday confirming her look. She’s anticipated to take a seat on the witness desk because the committee continues its hearings on crime, security, and metropolis administration. 

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III and Metropolis Administrator Kevin Donahue will be a part of her through the listening to. 

Final week, the pinnacle of the D.C. Police Union Greggory Pemberton testified earlier than the committee in regards to the metropolis’s crime and policing. He instructed the representatives that a number of of the D.C. Metropolis Council’s actions have led to an exodus of officers and a rise in violent crime. 

“There are quite a few actions by the D.C. council, together with their rhetoric, that has led to a mass defection of officers and an exponential improve in violent crime.” mentioned D.C. Police Union’s Greg Pemberton. 

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, Councilmember Charles Allen, amongst others had been grilled by the committee over insurance policies they mentioned had been too delicate on criminals and anti-police throughout a criminal offense wave. 

Mendelson maintained that total crime numbers had been down. However he acknowledged {that a} spike in homicides and carjackings had fueled public anxiousness over issues of safety.

“Folks ought to really feel protected, and it’s a downside that many residents of the district don’t,” he mentioned.

WASHINGTON, US – MARCH 29: Phil Mendelson, Chairman, D.C. testifies earlier than the U.S. Home Oversight and Accountability Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 29, 2023. (Michael A. McCoy/For The Washington Put up through Getty Pictures)

“D.C. clearly has a criminal offense disaster,” mentioned Comer, the chair of the Home Oversight and Reform Committee. “Our nation’s capital has deteriorated and declined. D.C. officers haven’t carried out their duty to serve the residents.”

Bowser vetoed the council’s overhaul of the town’s prison code in January, saying on the time that the invoice didn’t make residents within the District safer. 

In her letter to the council, the mayor instructed that the D.C. Council “amend this invoice to take away provisions for which there stays deep divisions throughout the prison justice group. The Council ought to then proceed with passing a invoice that displays the provisions for which there’s consensus settlement. These provisions, which symbolize roughly 95% of the invoice, would nonetheless symbolize a major and much-needed replace to our prison code.”

The council voted to override the mayor’s veto. And in early March, Congress voted in favor of a disapproval decision that will overturn the prison code revisions. Mendelson and the council determined to withdraw the measure earlier than President Biden signed into legislation laws nullifying the current overhaul.

Learn Mayor Bowser’s letter to the Home Oversight and Reform Committee under: