Last week I met with Kris Baumann, the President of the Fraternal Order of Police, to discuss issues of public safety. I came out of the meeting feeling a sense of urgency. It looks as if street crime will get worse before it gets better.
MPD is severely undermanned and burdened with a bureaucracy that forces officers to spend more time at their desks when they should be patrolling the streets. Combine a broken police force with a coming spike in the number of 13-21 year olds, the most likely violent offenders, and a perfect storm is brewing. Our city is not prepared, which is scary.
Nobody wants to return to the days of the crack epidemic when DC was the murder capitol of the nation. But that is where we are heading if we don't fix MPD and don't address our city's changing demographics. We need a combination of more stringent law enforcement together with programs providing greater opportunities for youth. Certain solutions that I propose include:
-Tougher sentences for violent offenders along with in-prison programs to lower the recitivism rate
-Redeployment strategies that ensure the proper number of officers are present in the most high-risk areas
-Reforming the police booking system to reduce time spent on paperwork
-Focus on prevention and rehabilitation to address juvenile crime. Increase collaboration with our community organizations, such as the Peaceoholics, to provide mentoring and mediation to young people.
I would encourage those with additional ideas to prevent the coming spike in violent crime to post here. As a city we are unprepared, and we need to make some serious changes.
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1 comment:
The solution is this: Institute the death penalty, manatory mimimum prison sentences for illegal handgun just like Virginia. Look at Virginia....YOu do not see the crime like in the District or Prince George Co.
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