As police continue to investigate what provoked a weekend shooting at Dupont Circle restaurant Heritage India, one member of the D.C. Council wants bars, clubs and restaurants holding after-hours events to hire off-duty police officers for additional security. more ›

UPDATE (3:55 p.m.):The FBI confirms with ABC7 that a bomb threat caused the flight delays at National Airport. The 44 passengers are currently being interviewed while the person who made the threat has been apprehended in Dayton. more ›

Eight more suspicious letters have been collected at or en route to D.C. schools today, adding to the 28 found yesterday, all containing a white, powdery substance. more ›

UPDATE (5:05 p.m.): FBI field office director James W. McJunkin just briefed the press regarding the letters, and have said that they have collected all the packages which were sent to schools in the District. McJunkin said that the FBI has "no reason to believe" that the letters contained a hazardous material. "Nothing that we've tested so far has turned out to be a hazardous substance," said McJunkin. McJunkin added that the investigation had expanded to 25 letters "and counting." more ›

After President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden late Sunday night, it became all hands on deck time for authorities. The Metropolitan Police Department, the Metro Transit Police, Mayor Vince Gray and the Department of Homeland Security all kicked into high gear, upping vigilance, putting more cops on the city's trains and buses, and even reminding people to watch out for things like "threats from retaliating lone wolves" inside offices. So while experts admit that an attack there would be "unlikely," it's hardly a surprise that the District's youngest sports facility might get in on the security uptick. more ›

More details are coming to light in the violent escape of a teenager from New Beginnings Youth Correctional Facility in Laurel on Sunday night -- and, as expected, the incident is causing many to question the overall efficacy of the facility and the capability of the District's Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services to manage it. more ›

During today's legislative meeting of the D.C. Council, a protester interrupted proceedings with a tirade against Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser regarding the construction of a Walmart in that ward. (A community activism group called Ward Four Thrives had been demonstrating outside the chambers this morning -- check out some video of the tail end of the incident after the jump.) The incident was rather quickly forgotten -- after all, protesters have interrupted the Council before, and with testy budget hearings looming, they will most certainly interrupt them again in the future. more ›

UPDATE: Well, that was fast -- a couple of DCist tipsters let us know that a gauntlet of greeters at the store's main exit are indeed checking receipts today -- and that refusing search is going to be tougher than simply walking away. One Safeway customer tells us that "calmly refusing doesn't appear to be an option," given greeters' "body language" and "them nearly blocking [the] exit." However, based on our tipsters, receipt checkers were apparently only stationed at the main exit and not the secondary one leading to the parking garage. more ›

The Montgomery County Civil Rights Coalition uncovered a interesting admission from the meeting Metro Transit Police had on January 5 with Metro's Riders' Advisory Council about WMATA's random bag searches -- that those who refuse such search will "be observed...be watched." more ›

Since the day Metro announced that it would start randomly searching bags throughout the 86-station and 12,000-bus stop system late last year, the transit agency has received plenty of criticism -- including from the Metro Riders' Advisory Council this week -- that the measure would amount to little more than security theater. more ›

21-year-old Aaron Tobey, of Charlottesville, stripped down to his underwear at a security checkpoint at Richmond International Airport on Thursday afternoon. Tobey had written a reference to the Fourth Amendment on his chest. He was arrested for disorderly conduct and released. His arraignment is scheduled for January 10. I guess it was only a matter of time until someone made this statement in protest, but I wonder what outrageous ways people will protest the Metro bag searches? I'm sure you commenters have some great ideas.
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Yesterday, news broke that Metro would start conducting random bag searches in hopes of sniffing out and preventing any terrorist attacks against the transit system. Then Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn showed us precisely how agents would be going through your stuff. This morning, the Washington Post flushed out more logistics regarding the searches in a front-page article. The Post reports that police at select stations will aim to search every third passenger, using explosives-screening equipment and bomb-sniffing dogs to detect any potential threats. more ›

D.C. police and emergency crews racked up nearly 52,000 hours of overtime during April's Nuclear Security Summit, which adds up to $4.4 million, Bill Myers reports in the Examiner. The White House has already promised to reimburse the District for the costs, as well it should. more ›

In a city that can at times feel like it's in perpetual lockdown, one government building remained fairly accessible to the public: the United States Supreme Court. That changes tomorrow though, when the building's iconic front entrance closes to visitors. The reason? Security, of course. more ›

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association has just posted some photos to its Facebook page of a white "ghost bike" placed at the corner of 12th Street and New York Ave. NW in honor of Constance Holden, who was killed Monday evening after a collision with a D.C. National Guard truck. more ›

Everyone knows to steer clear of the Washington Convention Center today and tomorrow; the Nuclear Security Summit and its 47 visiting delegations have prompted road closures and parking restrictions around Mt. Vernon Square. But there are also other places you might want to avoid getting too close to -- hotels. more ›

The massive Nuclear Summit heading to the Washington Convention Center next week is bringing along with it major road closures, barricades, checkpoints, bus rerouting, the shuttering of an entire Metro station, and all sorts of other headaches for the Mt. Vernon Square, Shaw and Chinatown neighborhoods. For all the specific details on what will be closed and when, see our earlier post and map. more ›

View Nuclear Summit road closures in a larger map more ›

Metro Transit Police say they will conduct random station and rail yard sweeps throughout the day Monday as part of heightened security protocols established after this morning's terrorist attacks in Moscow. more ›

You'd think after a year of White House gatecrashers and Pentagon shooters, congressional staffers would have a healthy amount of respect for the security process at the U.S. Capitol. But you'd of course be wrong. Jordy Yager over at The Hill newspaper reports that Capitol Police officers are sick and tired of being bullied by entitled staffers who insist the rules don't apply to them.

Several officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Hill that without a written directive of the policy, they’re left to face bullying staffers and intimidating lawmakers who have been known to file complaints against the officers. The staffers have accused them of discourteous treatment after being stopped and directed to the magnetometers. more ›

Oh, you thought that Mayor Fenty would actually be reimbursing the city for all that extra security he used while biking through Rock Creek Park back in November? District attorney general Peter Nickles says don't be silly! "It has never been the practice of anyone serving as mayor of the District of Columbia to refund the cost of his or her security detail," Nickles told the Council yesterday. Nickles also made sure to remind the Council that just because the Mayor is alone in his vehicle, it doesn't mean that "the mayor isn't adequately protected at all times." Obviously, this can only mean one thing: the EOM has invested in a small cadre of pre-crime sentinels, invisible to the human eye. Heck, the cost for such an operation might just be buried somewhere in that $47 million which the city has "recklessly" handed out to organizations who weren't following tax and business laws this year. more ›

News broke late last week that Hawk One, the company that was responsible for providing security guards at the District of Columbia's 127 public schools, had gone belly up. The timing couldn't have been worse, as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee handed out 388 pink slips to teachers and staff on the very day that the Hawk One guards didn't show up to work. The combination may well have exacerbated a skirmish that broke out at McKinley High School on Friday in reaction to the layoffs, during which two people were arrested. more ›

President Barack Obama will be addressing a joint session of Congress tonight to make his big health care speech, so the usual security perimeter around the U.S. Capitol for such events will be in effect. The president's speech is set to begin at 8 p.m., but the Capitol Square will be restricted beginning at 6 p.m. The United States Capitol Police are also advising that the following streets will be closed beginning at 6:30 p.m. until the end of the speech. more ›

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty likes to keep active. The man gets up almost every day and runs, bikes or otherwise exercises for a solid hour (if not more), and he likes to be seen always zipping across town to take care of his mayoral business, whether in his little Smart Car or his big Lincoln Navigator. But ever since Fenty got in a fender-bender about a week ago, the Washington Post has had a hard-on about whether or not the mayor did anything wrong to cause the accident, and today Nikita Stewart goes ahead and asks the question: Should the mayor be driving himself around the city at all? more ›

D.C. is just too real for the Real World. more ›

We missed this one in the Examiner this morning: Among the legislative business conducted by the D.C. Council on Tuesday, the body gave initial approval to a bill that would require gas stations in the city to install video surveillance cameras. Reporter Michael Neibauer has fun with his lede: "D.C. Councilwoman Yvette Alexander was victimized at a gas station, and now all District service station owners appear likely to have to pay." The Ward 7 Council member rarely makes headlines, but you may recall that her purse was stolen at a Southeast gas station way back in June, 2007. She introduced this legislation in October of that year, and it's apparently taken this long to bring it to a vote. What was the hold up, Yvette? A second vote is still required before the bill becomes law. more ›

Roll Call's Emily Yehle reports that some drunk guy managed to wander in and out and back in to the Hart Senate Office Building through a parking garage on Monday before finally being stopped by Capitol Police. The incident "appears to be a function of somebody not doing their job." You think? The man, described as having "no malicious intent," was eventually arrested for unlawful entry. Lots of hemming and hawing about human error from officials, and frankly we're surprised this sort of thing doesn't happen more often. One interesting tidbit about the effect of the new Capitol Visitor Center, which was built with the intention of streamlining security procedures: Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says the new CVC has resulted in "more open doors" and a need for more officers. Earlier today, Terrie S. Rouse, CEO for Visitor Services at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, announced that the center has received one million visitors since it opened in December. more ›

DCist contributor James Calder reports from his morning trek for bagels at Dupont Market on 18th Street this morning: as per his usual routine, James stopped on the way back home at the corner of 18th and T to grab an Express. But as you can see in the above the photo, the box was missing, along with the Washington Post box. A third box had also been spirited away, but he couldn't be sure to which publication it belonged. more ›