Martin Austermuhle
In a letter to D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson yesterday, Police Chief Cathy Lanier argued that with more people moving into D.C. and the city becoming a hub of culture and cuisine, more police officers will be required to keep residents and visitors safe. Her letter comes ahead of two measures before the council that would appropriate money for the recruitment and training of new police officers.
“While we are funded to keep pace with attrition, this obviously does not account for increased demand that commercial and residential development will soon place on the Department. Ultimately, the equation for preparing for the future is simple: more officers = safer streets = more development = a city that continues to grow. The city learned this lesson the hard way in the 1990s when unacceptable crime levels led to a large number of residents and businesses, and therefore the tax base, to depart the city,” she wrote.
The council is scheduled to take up a measure today sent down by Mayor Vince Gray that would set aside money to train 48 additional police officers. Additionally, it will debate a bill that would lower fines for the city’s speed cameras, putting a kink in a plan by Gray to use some of those revenues to pay for the training of 100 police officers.
“I agree with Chief Lanier that as our city grows we must make further investments in public safety. I’ve recently proposed adding 100 officers to the ranks of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to give the Chief the ability to deploy additional officers into our communities on foot, bike, and Segway – especially in neighborhoods that are growing rapidly. I strongly believe that adding these additional officers is critical to keeping our residents and visitors safe, and I’m deeply disappointed that the Council is considering opposing this plan. I urge the Council to reject this ill-advised and short-sighted maneuver, and join with me in working to make our city the safest it can be,” said Gray.
This morning Mendelson complained that the police department has not done an analysis of exactly how many officers it needs to effectively patrol the city. There are currently around 3,800 officers, the mark that many officials often warn that they do not want to go below.
