March 3, 2008
City to Subsidize Hiring Officers Outside Bars and Clubs
Last week Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham announced he had secured $1 million to subsidize the hiring of off-duty MPD officers outside District bars and clubs.
Businesses that sell alcohol are not allowed to directly hire off-duty officers, and must hire them through the police department at a rate of approximately $56 an hour. The new subsidy means the ABC Board can now provide up to a 50 percent discount on the price of hiring police officers to stand outside bars at closing times. The subsidy would make the price of hiring officers roughly the same as what businesses that do not sell alcohol currently pay.
"The subsidy program will encourage the hire of officers by reducing these costs," Graham said in a statement. "As a result of the program, more officers can be deployed in Adams Morgan, U Street, or other DC entertainment areas to protect the public outside bars during late night hours."
The onus will still be on the bars and clubs to take advantage of the subsidy and spend the roughly $28 an hour to hire officers. We can imagine, however, a number of neighborhood associations and ANCs could be interested in using the new subsidy as justification for adding mandatory hiring of officers on weekend nights into voluntary agreements they have with these kinds of businesses.
Photo by AquaAmber
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Are these bars/clubs really that hard up for cash? Sounds like a nice little subsidy for 18th street bar owners.
What's the rationale behind the bar on alcohol licensed establishments just directly hiring officers?
i wish they'd get rid of the bullshit title of "voluntary agreements". i mean, really, when the ANC holds a gun to your head and says "agree to this, or we're going to throw our great weight around and recommend that you not get your license", that's not voluntary....it's bordering on extortion.
Now the neighbors will just bitch about patron parking and car doors slamming at closing time, which ANCs want re-classified as a felony.
I think the rationale has to do with coordinating police activity in a given area. I also don't imagine that business or MPD are particularly comfortable with a culture wherein businesses are encouraged to give large amounts of money to law enforcment officers (it could bribery one way or extortion the other, either way it looks or could turn very bad).
And IMGoph is right. "justification for adding mandatory hiring of officers on weekend nights into voluntary agreements" sounds sort of Soviet to me.
What's the rationale behind the bar on alcohol licensed establishments just directly hiring officers?
Conflict of interest. A cop's less likely to prosecute shady goings-on at a bar where he/she works. In fact, they're more likely to get a cut of the proceeds.
"Conflict of interest."
That sums it up nicely.
@IMGoph "i wish they'd get rid of the bullshit title of "voluntary agreements". i mean, really, when the ANC holds a gun to your head and says "agree to this, or we're going to throw our great weight around and recommend that you not get your license", that's not voluntary....it's bordering on extortion."
I always preferred the term "cooperative agreements" for this reason.
Such is life when it comes to programming uses that may conflict in the big city. It's gotta be done somehow.
The 'voluntary agreement' process has certainly been abused in DC, pretty much for as long as any of us can remember.
Yes, it's been used to rein in some terrible behavior by some bad bars (and some equally bad corner stores). But at the same time it allows a tiny group of residents to control the entertainment choices in a neighborhood, often against the wishes of the considerable majority of the rest of the neighborhood.
Can anyone suggest a better system?
I say do away with ANCs altogether. Too often they are dominated by little Napoleons drunk on the "great weight" of their power. Too often there are financial shenanigans that go on, with no oversight or accountability. Down with ANCs!
I'm with Cranky. The Emperor must dissolve the Galactic Senate permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic must be swept away. I know what you're thinking. "How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"
The regional governors will have direct control over territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.
And by "battle station" I mean "truckloads of shaved attack pandas."
An unintended consequence of this arrangement is that if police in other areas of Ward 1 are needed, they will likely be called from Adams-Morgan. The rationale being that the police paid for by the bars are there anyway. I've heard this may have happened already.
This defeats the purpose of hiring extra police. Perhaps worse, it means that the police that do remain are committed to the bars (since that's who is paying them) rather than the rest of the neighborhood.
Huh! Is there any other developed nation where businesses RENT real live police officers?
What's next, renting a National Guard infantry squad for my next block party?
If a neighborhood doesn't have enough cops, there should be ON-DUTY cops dispatched there. Off-duty cops should not have any more powers than any other citizens.
Sometimes, we act like such a backward banana republic.