As crime in the nation’s capital continues to be a focus of nation-wide political attention, D.C Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council have shifted to a tougher stance on law enforcement while armed carjackings in the District soar, new reports of MPD police burnout surface, and a murder suspect escapee in Northwest D.C. is finally apprehended. 

Signifying a degree of unity between the mayor’s office and the city’s elected officials – several of whom had voted in the wake of the George Floyd protests of 2020 to restrict policing measures – the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary unanimously approved the nomination of Acting Police Chief Pamela A. Smith on Oct. 25 to become the permanent MPD Police Chief, with the nomination heading for a final vote before the full council Nov. 7. 

Acting Chief Smith has fully endorsed Mayor Bowser’s recent tougher-on-crime legislation dubbed the ACT Now Act of 2023 (Addressing Crime Trends Now Act). Without significant public objections to the legislation from members of the D.C. Council, the legislation is designed to allow police to declare emergency “drug-free zones” to clear out open-air “drug markets;” to criminalize the wearing of a mask for the purpose of committing a crime, to amend earlier laws against police neck restraints, allowing officers “incidental contact;” to give officers more leeway to engage in vehicular pursuit; and to establish felony penalties for “organized retail theft.” 

Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto, chair of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary referred to the committee’s vote endorsing Smith as a “turning point” that “comes at a critical time for the Department and the District,” according to WTOP. 

“As we face a significant increase in both violent crime and property crime and MPD simultaneously suffers a hiring and retention crisis. Our communities are crying out for help,…