11th-Hour Push Underway to Gut D.C. Crime Bill

A new bill aimed at reducing crime in the nation’s capital is making its way through the Washington, D.C. City Council. But left-wing activists and some city officials are already undermining the legislation and paving the way for criminals to continue wreaking havoc in the District.

On February 6, the D.C. City Council unanimously passed the “Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024,” a comprehensive legislative package which represents a dramatic reversal from prior efforts by the city council to erode the ability of the Metropolitan Police Department and the court system to catch and punish criminals. If the bill survives a second vote toward the end of February, it will go to the desk of Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation contains a number of major overhauls to D.C.’s criminal code. Some of the most notable include: provisions allowing police to create “drug-free zones” (a badly needed measure to combat open-air drug markets); an extension of the statute of limitations for serious crimes such as attempted murder and sexual abuse; an expanded definition of carjacking to more effectively prosecute offenders; and allowing police to chase criminals who pose an imminent danger to the public. (A 2021 D.C. law banned virtually all police chases in the city, contributing to an explosion of carjackings by offenders who knew they would not be pursued.)

The bill also makes directing retail theft a punishable crime, a provision aimed at stopping the rash of robberies that have decimated D.C.’s retail industry. As AMAC Newsline reported in January, dozens of stores throughout the city have been emptied by thieves, part of a nationwide epidemic of organized retail theft. These thieves often set up shop just blocks from the stores they robbed, selling stolen wares at low prices.

Notably, the same Democrats on the city council now backing the Secure D.C. Act voted just one year ago for the “Revised Criminal Code Act” – a bill that took precisely the opposite approach to “criminal justice reform.” That bill, which was sold as “modernizing” D.C.’s criminal code, would have virtually eliminated all mandatory minimum sentencing, reduced maximum penalties for crimes like robbery and carjacking, and granted sex offenders a shot at early release.

The bill was so extreme that Mayor Bowser – a leftist through and through – vetoed the legislation. Though the city council ultimately overrode her veto, the bill was finally blocked by a disapproval resolution that passed the U.S. Congress and was ultimately signed by President Joe Biden – another testament to just how extreme the Council’s legislation was.

However, rising crime in the nation’s capital has caused at least some Democrats in the city government to change course. D.C. is currently enmeshed in a crime epidemic which, according to Axios, “saw a 39% increase in violent crime, a 26% increase in overall crime, and the most homicides in over 25 years” in 2023. Carjackings in the District also nearly doubled last year and don’t seem to be slowing down in 2024.

The Secure D.C. Act, the latest legislation, is effectively an admission by the Council that soft-on-crime policies aren’t working, and the city is in crisis. At-large council member Kenyan McDuffie, who last year voted for the Revised Criminal Code Act, told a local Fox affiliate that “what we’re experiencing right now is absolutely unacceptable” and the Secure D.C. Act is the council’s effort to “try to improve conditions.”

But some left-wing activists and D.C. Democrats don’t see it that way. Although the bill passed unanimously following a first reading, that was only after some holdouts on the Council successfully lobbied to remove provisions which would have made it a crime to wear a mask while “caus[ing] another person to fear for his or her personal safety” and allowed law enforcement to collect DNA from individuals if they are arrested. This latter measure would have allowed police to more easily connect criminals to earlier crimes, but some Council members alleged that it would have unfairly targeted minority residents.

The current version of the bill also includes a caveat stating that police can only declare an area a drug-free zone for 15 consecutive days, as well as a legal mechanism which would sunset changes to pretrial detention statutes after 225 days. One of the most controversial aspects of the bill on the left are changes to D.C.’s bail laws which reverse course on efforts to end cash bail. If passed in its current form, the Secure D.C. Act would mean that accused criminals could once again be held on bail – but only for a limited time.

Some activist groups in D.C. are pressuring the Council to gut the bill even further. The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, a local governing body representing an affluent part of D.C., has approved a resolution demanding that the Council remove the provisions allowing police to create drug-free zones and re-establishing pre-trial detention, claiming that the measures are “too expensive.” The D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union also issued a statement opposing the bill, specifically claiming that drug-free zones do not prevent crime.

It seems that some Democrats in D.C. are beginning to come to their senses about the unsustainable levels of crime and chaos gripping the city. But with a number of passionate leftists both in and out of the city government clinging to the same failed policies, hopes for real change may soon be dashed.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.