There's a New 'Sheriff' on U Street
We couldn't help but notice these odd signs popping up on the windows of businesses all along the U Street Corridor in the last month. "This Business is Being Monitored by the U Street Sheriff's Department" sounds a bit like a smart-alecky joke. Obviously the District has no sheriff's department at all, let alone one that only serves U Street. So what exactly are these signs? We could imagine a business version of "Beware of Dog," some attempt to deter more meek criminals from breaking into the place.
But the posted names, telephone numbers and email addresses of two Third District MPD officers, Sgt. Anthony Washington and Officer Travia Kyle, suggest otherwise. We called Sgt. Washington to ask him -- what on earth is the "U Street Sheriff's Department"?
According to Washington, when new D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier took office, she mandated all her district commanders to come up with a crime strategy for their districts during the first 100 days of the new administration. Many of those commanders chose some version of an "adopt-a-block" program, but Sgt. Washington, a self-described "easy going, silly guy," whose responsibilities include all of U Street, took the idea a bit further and created the signs as an attempt to build a feeling of solidarity among business owners in the corridor. The name "U Street Sheriff's Department" was something he first joked about, but quickly, it caught on within the department.
Photo by Sommer Mathis
"Of course one of the ideas behind the sign is to prevent crime. [Businesses] can have this sign in the window, and maybe people will think, it’s a little more intense here now. Also sometimes people see stuff and they don’t want to get involved, they don't want to call the police. So the idea by putting the phone and email on there is, you can just email me and say hey, I saw this," Washington said.
So far, no one has called or emailed with a crime report as a result of the signs. Washington said the signs have been going up slowly since late January, though as recently as two weeks ago, several local businesses on U Street still hadn't been approached by Washington or Kyle with the offer of a sign. But according to Washington, the businesses along U Street they have approached are enthusiastic about the program: he says businesses on 14th Street are asking for them, too.
For more information about the "U Street Sheriff's Department" program, contact Third District police officers Sgt. Anthony Williams at (202) 673-6821 or anthonyh.washington (@) dc.gov, or Officer Travia Kyle at (202) 673-6815 or travis.kyle (@) dc.gov (that email is correct, officer kyle got assigned a misspelled email address by MPD's tech support).