At-large councilmember Robert White introduced a public safety bill Wednesday aimed at uniting the city’s multi-agency response as homicides reach their highest rates since the 1990s.

Dubbed the Whole Government Response to Crime Act of 2023, the legislation touches on several components of what officials often call the “public safety ecosystem” — like expanding data collection, improving the error-prone 911 center and beleaguered crime lab, and supporting youth and young adults at risk of becoming a victim or offender.

“This bill responds directly to a siloed and disjointed public safety system that is leaving residents unsafe,” White said in a statement. His announcement adds that the legislation is one part of a slate of public safety bills he plans to introduce over the coming months.

The emphasis of the bill is notably different than a separate crime bill, introduced a few weeks ago by White’s colleague, Ward 2 councilmember and chair of the judiciary committee Brooke Pinto. Pinto’s legislation, introduced on Sept. 19, largely centered on carceral penalties for offenders and heightened police surveillance, while White’s legislation focuses on other kinds of systemic solutions, particularly improving some of the city’s already existing violence reduction efforts and “addressing the failure in the District’s public safety system at every step.”

“Everyone rightly cares about how we stop the shootings, the carjackings, the window smashing,” White said in a statement. “I don’t have a magic wand that will stop all violence tomorrow—no one does—but my crime response bill will get us there by fixing what’s broken in our public safety system today.”

Six councilmembers have signed on as co-introducers so far: Pinto, At-large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, Ward 3 Councilmember Matthew Frumin, Ward 4 Councilmember  Janeese Lewis George, and Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau.

Pinto, whose public safety package contains some similarities to White’s in its efforts to improve victim services and increase retention at the crime lab, said in a statement that she is pleased to see his bill addressing  “additional ways to meet the gaps in our system.”

“I remain focused on the many interventions we can take as a government and community to curb crime,” she said in a statement.

If passed, the bill would require the violence reduction programs that exist across the D.C. government to compile annual performance metrics and figure out a data-sharing system to track outcomes. The city runs multiple different violence reduction programs under various agencies, like the Building Blocks program within the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Credible Messengers program within the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and the Violence Interrupter program within the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement; the D.C. Attorney Generals office also runs its own program, Cure the Streets. These programs work in an intervention-based model that sends violence interrupters into neighborhoods to intervene in violence before it happens; often, these people were once involved in violence themselves, have changed their lives, and work to build relationships with residents at risk of committing violence.

But a frequent critique of the city’s strategy is that it lacks cohesion and centralized communication, meaning agencies often work in siloes and fail to create a truly city-wide approach to this form of violence prevention. Many advocates and residents also contend that the programs aren’t given adequate funding. (When he ran for mayor in 2022, White’s public safety plan contained a similar theme, focusing on expanding and professionalizing the role of violence interrupters in the city.)

White’s bill would also create a new position within D.C. government, A Director of Emerging Adults, to ensure that young people, primarily ages 18-24, are provided with educational employment opportunities, and to oversee accountability measures that focus on rehabilitation. According to the legislation, this person would facilitate collaboration between a multitude of city agencies that run diversion, educational, or employment programs, such as ONSE, DYRS, D.C. Public Schools, and the Department of Parks and Recreation, among others.

In another step to improve data collection and oversight, the bill would require the city to collect and publish firearm tracing data publicly — like how many guns were recovered, where they were recovered, and the number of ghost guns, among other provisions. This would come in the form of an annual report.

Another area targeted in White’s bill is victim services; it would create a full-time victim services coordinator, who would be responsible for connecting victims of crime with legal aid, financial assistance for medical bills or funerals, and mental health support. This role would work closely with the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants and the city’s hospital-based violence intervention program — a network that provides services to people who are hospitalized with a life-threatening injury due to violence.

The legislation also seeks to improve two troubled D.C. agencies that officials often point to in discussions regarding the city’s rising crime rates: the Department of Forensic Science, and the Office of Unified Communications.

DFS, otherwise known as the crime lab, is responsible for testing, analyzing, and preserving evidence from crime scenes, and monitoring drug trends. The agency lost its accreditation in 2021 amid mounting concerns over accuracy and compromised prosecutions and has essentially been outsourcing its work since. On top of the systemic challenges facing the department, it’s also understaffed, meaning D.C. police officers are often supplementing crime lab work and evidence handling. A lack of sound and readily available evidence can then hamper the U.S. Attorney’s office when it comes to carrying out prosecutions.

White’s bill would allow Mayor Muriel Bowser to create a DFS recruitment incentive of up to $5,000 and a retention payment of the same value for forensic scientists or crime scene analysts within DFS’ crime scene science division; the agency would also be required to publish annual reports on hiring and retention.

In order to increase oversight of OUC, or the city’s 911 agency — which for years has been scrutinized for response failures, some of which involved deadly incidents — the bill would create a 911 System Improvement Task Force. Consisting of city officials, experts in emergency response, and advisory neighborhood commissioners, the task force would be required to present recommendations on a number of 911 operational protocols within 90 days of the bill’s enactment. (White’s introduction of his legislative package Thursday came as Pinto led a hearing on OUC performance and oversight in the judiciary committee.)

Charles Allen, who previously led the judiciary and public safety committee and performed oversight of OUC, also announced a bill this week aiming to improve 911 operations. His bill would provide first-time homebuyer incentives, perks currently offered to police, firefighters, paramedics, and correctional officers, to call-takers and dispatchers within the 911 and 311 call centers.

“Right now, OUC is suffering from a major staffing shortage, which leads to low morale and burnout. It can also lead to errors in times of crisis and delayed responses,” Allen said in a statement announcing the legislation on Wednesday. “We need strong incentives, comparable to those offered to other public safety personnel, to attract and retain the best and the brightest. Helping someone start a career and build a life for themselves in the District through home ownership – while committing to stay with us for at least five years — is a great way to do that.”

White’s crime-reduction efforts come as city officials across government — from the mayor, to the police department, to the U.S. Attorney, to the council — face pressure from residents to address rising crime. The U.S. Attorney’s office has faced questions for its low prosecution rates, while Bowser and Pinto, who have both authored legislation increasing penalties for offenders, have been criticized for focusing on tough-on-crime solutions instead of looking at holistic, rehabilitative responses to gun violence. When it was introduced, Pinto’s bill received swift pushback, both from reform advocates and judges, for a provision that would allow police to randomly stop and seize any person who is on probation, supervised release, or parole with a gun conviction. Judges for the D.C. Courts wrote to Pinto expressing concern that the provision was unconstitutional, while advocates said the bill would open the door for further harassment of Black residents by the city’s police.

The announcement of the bill also comes on the heels of a violent summer in the District; on Sept. 26, the city recorded its 200th homicide of the year, the first time since 1997 that the city reached that number before October. As of Oct. 5, 216 people in D.C. have been killed, a 38% increase over last year.

Both White’s bill and Pinto’s bill will need to be introduced into a council committee before making it to a vote. Also this fall, the Council is set to vote on the confirmation of Acting Police Chief Pamela Smith, who received broad support in her confirmation hearing last week.

This story has been updated with a statement from councilmember Brooke Pinto.