CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of acting Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith.
As part of an ongoing effort to curb crime, the District will soon enforce a pilot juvenile curfew program with a focus on seven high-priority areas.
Acting Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith made the announcement on Aug. 17, just days after MPD responded to calls about an early morning attack against Howard University (HU) students.
People 16 and younger who are caught outside between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. during the weekend will be taken to a Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Services facility where personnel will connect them and their family with services and support.
“Parents, we want you to know where your kids are at night,” Smith said. “We want our city’s youth to be safe and at home during overnight hours. Our goal isn’t to detain young people but ensure their safety in the District of Columbia.”
During the early morning hours of Aug. 14, a group of youths were alleged to have robbed and assaulted HU students in front of Howard Towers Plaza on Sherman Avenue in Northwest.
This incident happened days after the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD)’s removal of a large group of young people from Banneker field and a fight that broke out in a restaurant on Georgia Avenue in Northwest.
According to MPD, two suspects stabbed an HU student and stole a set of keys, a pair of Jordans and an iPhone during the incident.
Starting Sept. 1, MPD’s seven juvenile curfew enforcement areas will be HU and Banneker Recreation Center, along with the 4000 block of Georgia Avenue, U Street, Chinatown and Navy Yard, 14th Street between Otis Street and Spring Road in Northwest, the 4400-4600 block of Benning Road in Southeast, and the 1300 block of Congress Street in Southeast.
On the day Smith announced the curfew, HU hosted a public safety fair where students gathered information about self-defense, rideshare safety, athletic injuries, fire safety, and sexual health. Days earlier, during a public safety town hall, university officials announced the installation of 1,000 on-campus cameras, the dispatch of university police officers to vulnerable areas on campus, implementation of a secure access system and the designation of a safe path.
In a statement, HU President Wayne A.I. Frederick encouraged students to download a campus emergency response app and remain vigilant while on campus.
“Our layered approach to public safety involves not just our ongoing partnership with MPD, but a commitment from our students to support our efforts to keep our campus free from dangerous behavior,” Frederick said.
“We will be requiring students to show their university-issued photo ID to enter residence halls and other buildings open only for students, faculty, and staff. We also are reminding students that they should refrain from granting access to residence halls or other buildings to people who are not Howard University students.”
Since the public safety incident, HU students have continued to engage the D.C. community, including during HU’s 10th annual Day of Service on Friday when 1,500 youth participated in seven service-learning projects across the city, including at Sasha Bruce Youthwork.
Meanwhile, the Bowser administration has connected recent crime trends to the passage of emergency public safety legislation that instituted pretrial detention for violent offenders and expanded MPD’s vehicular pursuit capabilities.
A robbery depression initiative reportedly triggered a 21% reduction in robberies. MPD also closed 13 homicide cases last month, while some arrests aided in the recovery of firearms, Bowser administration officials said. In total, 122 illegal firearms have been recovered since the beginning of August.
While overall violent crime hasn’t been reduced, Bowser acknowledged what she described as a start to a reversal.
“We know that many common-sense solutions are necessary to fill the gaps in our public safety ecosystem,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “We also know that we continue to need a policy environment that supports effective enforcement and reduces crime. We’ll continue to work with the council to make sure we have the right policies, tools, laws and investments to drive down crime.”
The age should be raised to 19-year-olds, and the District needs to create a profile based on previous arrests. The perpetrators must have some things in common. Get to the root of the problem and address it.