Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District of Columbia’s top law enforcement officials will testify before Congress on Tuesday about the surge in crime in the nation’s capital.
Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee III and U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, whose office prosecutes the federal city’s most serious crimes, will join the mayor on Capitol Hill amid a backdrop of rising violent crime and the lack of prosecution in most cases brought to D.C. Superior Court.
“Radical left-wing policies pushed in our nation’s capital have led to a crime crisis, rampant homelessness and lackluster economic opportunities,” Rep. James Comer, Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “It’s clear that Americans living in and visiting Washington, D.C., have suffered from haphazard policies that have emboldened criminals. They deserve better.”
This is the second hearing on the city’s crime woes organized by House Republicans. The first was held in March when the committee hosted D.C. Council member Charles Allen and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.
Republicans criticized Mr. Allen for supporting efforts to defund D.C. police. Mr. Mendelson argued during that hearing that “there is no crime crisis in Washington.”
Days before the March hearing, an aide for Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, was the victim of an apparent random stabbing by a man who had recently been released from jail. And in the days afterward, a Virginia woman was brutally slaughtered inside her New York Avenue hotel room by a stranger.
The city has witnessed increases in homicides, carjackings and sexual assaults this year. The latest examples include a 10-year-old girl who was seriously wounded by a stray bullet on Mother’s Day and three people killed within a seven-hour period Monday.
Ms. Bowser has worked to reinforce the city’s public safety image in the past week.
She announced her plans to introduce a D.C. Council bill Monday that would increase penalties for felony gun possession and allow the courts more discretion when it comes to ordering pretrial holds on repeat violent offenders.
The mayor also hosted a summit last week where city police and prosecutors shared what they are doing about crime among D.C. residents.
A chief issue is that the U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to pursue 67% of the cases brought to its office by police.
Ms. Bowser said at the summit that she thought the public attention has resulted in more pressure to prosecute crimes, saying “I actually think that the light of day on all parts of the ecosystem is working.”
In a Monday letter to Mr. Comer, Gregg Pemberton, head of the D.C. Police Union, called Ms. Bowser a “great ally” against efforts to defund the department.
He also credited her with vetoing a major rewrite to the city’s criminal code, which was overridden by the D.C. Council but ultimately rejected by a bipartisan Congress during a mandated review period.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.