D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) introduced Thursday that she is shaking up the group of her public security businesses, placing the Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention and the Workplace of Neighborhood Security and Engagement beneath a single director.
Washington, D.C
Two D.C. public safety agencies will now be under one director
The 2 businesses now beneath Harllee Harper have related objectives — although metropolis legislation doesn’t permit the mayor to merge them. ONSE, which opened in 2017, is tasked with working packages that attain folks at-risk of gun violence of their neighborhoods. The Workplace of Gun Violence Prevention, launched in 2021 and made everlasting in 2022, funds and coordinates prevention efforts throughout D.C. businesses. Harllee Harper stated the gun violence prevention workplace usually handles coverage, whereas the Workplace of Neighborhood Security and Engagement does extra hands-on work.
The transfer is meant to consolidate assets in a metropolis authorities {that a} guide as soon as known as “useful resource wealthy and coordination poor.”
“That is the logical subsequent step, for us to have the ability to mix the 2 of coverage and follow,” Harllee Harper stated Thursday.
The District authorities has poured funding into different approaches to public security over the previous few years, rising its violence interruption packages and launching a collection of initiatives geared toward offering assets to these weak to violence. Nonetheless, there have been greater than 200 homicides in each 2021 and 2022 — a grim milestone that D.C. had not seen in many years. Within the first six weeks of this yr, homicides citywide have been up nearly 30 p.c in comparison with the identical time final yr. Amongst these killed have been two 13-year-olds, and a Metro employee who authorities say was making an attempt to cease a taking pictures rampage on the Potomac Avenue Station.
Regardless of constant funding, cussed violence has brought on District leaders to reevaluate their crime-fighting packages and the way they’re organized. Throughout an interview with The Publish on the finish of final yr, the mayor hinted at an imminent change, saying that officers have been consolidating packages and initiatives “so there’s a clear, clear path.”
Peter Hermann contributed to this report.