The District will enforce a youth curfew in eight neighborhoods across the city, including on U Street NW and Congress Street SE, Police Chief Pamela Smith announced in a press conference on Thursday.

The curfew is one of several strategies that Smith, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and her team announced to curb violent crime, which is up 38% compared to last year, and property crime, which is up 29%.

“Our goal isn’t to arrest our young people, but we want to ensure the safety of our youth here in the District of Columbia,” Smith said during the press conference.

Anyone under the age of 17 who is caught breaking curfew will be brought to the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, where they will be re-connected with their family as well as be offered rehabilitative services, officials said.

The curfew goes from 11 p.m. through 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12 a.m. through 6 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The neighborhoods under curfew are Chinatown; Navy Yard; U Street Corridor; around Howard University and Banneker Recreation Center; 14th Street NW (between Otis and Spring Road NW); the 4000 block of Georgia Avenue NW; the 4400-4600 block of Benning Road SE; and the 1300 block of Congress Street SE.

The curfew will be enforced in areas where police data shows that young people are out past curfew hours. The Bowser administration decided to start enforcing the curfew because of the rise in violent crimes involving young suspects, because of the rise in violent crimes involving young suspects, though young people continue to make up a small portion of the people arrested for committing crimes. In 2021, juveniles accounted for roughly 7% of all crimes arrests made in the District, according to MPD.

Her administration is able to pilot the curfew because D.C. already has a juvenile curfew law that dates back to 1995, but the law hasn’t been enforced for years. Last year, Bowser denied reports that her administration had begun quietly enforcing the city’s curfew. A juvenile curfew is a controversial strategy (Chairman Phil Mendelson has previously said he does not support it) and research, including on D.C.’s own law, has found the measures to have little effect on juvenile crime or arrests.

At Thursday’s press conference, Smith also announced a number of other measures meant to combat a surge in violent and property crimes. The city will add 50 more CCTV cameras in areas significantly impacted by crime as a deterrent. At a time of staffing troubles for the Metropolitan Police Department, the District will also give police officers who refer someone to join the force a $5,000 bonus ($2,000 if they refer a new cadet). Smith says since July 2022, 30% of new officers were referred by a member of MPD.

The force currently has 3,380 officers and 120 cadets, according to Smith.

The mayor’s team also announced several non-police strategies to reduce violence, including a new hotline designed to help residents concerned about a troubled family member. City Administrator Kevin Donahue says the city’s Child and Family Services Agency will roll out a 211 number in October that seeks to help the caller navigate social services for their friend or family member.

“It’s a warn[ing] line that allows for a concerned parent, grandparent, sibling, friend to be able to flag someone who has not done anything wrong but they believe is caught up into something that may bring them harm,” said Donahue at the press conference.

Bowser says her administration has seen a 19% reduction in violent crime over the last thirty days, which she associated with the arrival of her new police chief, who started in mid-July, and a newly-passed crime bill that her office backed.

Bowser did not explain what provisions in the bill is helping to lead the decrease. The bill made several changes to the prosecution of crime, most significantly providing more flexibility to  D.C. judges to hold people with past violent offenses (including juveniles) in jail pending trial for new violent crimes.

Smith credited some of the progress they are seeing to newer MPD initiatives, including a “robbery suppression initiative,” which launched three weeks ago. The initiative dedicates extra resources Thursday through Sunday night to deter robberies and carjackings in the neighborhoods where they most often occur. The shifts are staffed by non-patrol officers, Smith said, leaving patrol officers available to respond to calls for service. She said the initiative is responsible for 30 arrests, which included 11 juveniles.

“We will continue launching initiatives such as this to address issues that are driving crime,” Smith said.

The mayor, her police chief, and other cabinet members of her public safety team presented a unified front on Thursday as they described their efforts to significantly reduce crime. The number of homicides and violent crimes have reduced in some cities across the country this year, but not in D.C.  It’s been an especially unrelenting violent summer in the city—there were 16 homicides in the first week of August alone.

The police chief says a major challenge is the number of guns that come to the city, despite D.C.’s strict gun laws. Smith said she is working with federal and local partners to prevent illegal guns from coming into the District.

Smith momentarily left the press conference to respond to an incident: An officer shot and wounded a man on Georgia Avenue NW. Officers alleged the man had a weapon on him. Police had been responding to a domestic violence call when they saw a man who matched the suspect’s description and engaged, Smith said. An officer shot the man once and he’s been taken to a hospital.

This post has been updated to include the number of juvenile arrests in 2021.