__________________________ __________________________

Councilmember Janeese Lewis George Councilmember Charles Allen

__________________________
Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau

AN AMENDMENT

#2

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

DATE: July 11, 2023

OFFERED BY: Councilmember Charles Allen

TO: B25-0395, the “Prioritizing Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act of

2023”/B25-0396, the “Prioritizing Public Safety Temporary Amendment
Act of 2023”

VERSION: X Introduced
___ Committee Report
___ Committee Print
___ First Reading
___ Amended First Reading
___ Engrossed
___ Enrolled
___ Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute

Amendment

New sections 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 are added to read as follows:

Sec. 9. Section 386(c) of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia (D.C. Official
Code § 5-113.01(c)), is amended by adding a new paragraph (1B) to read as follows:
“(1B) Quarterly, the case closure rates for:
“(A) Violent crimes, by offense, committed with or without the use of a
weapon; and
“(B) Non-fatal shootings.”.

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 Sec. 10. Title IV of the District of Columbia Mental Health Information Act of 1978,
effective March 3, 1979 (D.C. Law 2-136; D.C. Official Code § 7-1204.01 et seq.), is amended as
follows:
(a) Section 1013 (D.C. Official Code § 7-2510.13) is amended as follows:
(1) Subsection (c) is amended by striking the phrase “Working Group” and
inserting the phrase “Working Group, and shall convene the Working Group no later than
September 1, 2023” in its place.
(2) Subsection (e) is amended by striking the phrase “January 1, 2023” and inserting
the phrase “January 1, 2025” in its place.
(b) A new section 1014 is added to read as follows:
“Sec. 1014. Public awareness initiatives.
“By September 1, 2023:
“(1) The Metropolitan Police Department shall prominently display information
about extreme risk protection orders, including the petition process, on its website; and
“(2) The Office of the Attorney General shall develop and implement a public
awareness campaign to inform residents, professionals, and District government employees about
extreme risk protection orders, including the petition process.”.

Sec. 11. Implementation of strategic gun violence reduction strategies.

(a)(1) The Metropolitan Police Department shall facilitate a bi-monthly Law Enforcement
Shooting Review to review each shooting in the District that occurred since the last Shooting
Review, including non-fatal shootings.
(2) The purpose of such Law Enforcement Shooting Reviews shall be to identify
shooting dynamics, potential retaliation, and necessary law enforcement or other government
agency contacts or interventions with persons involved in the reviewed shootings, and then assign
responsibilities for immediate interventions.
(b) The Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice shall coordinate a bi-monthly
Coordination Meeting/Intervention Services Shooting Review to review each shooting in the
District that occurred since the last Shooting Review from a services and response perspective, in
order to identify and assign government and community partners to outreach and engage those
high-risk individuals implicated by the shootings.
(c) Except as provided in any other relevant agreement or funding restriction regarding the
agencies’ provision of services, the Department of Behavioral Health, Child and Family Services
Agency, Department of Employment Services, and Department of Motor Vehicles shall prioritize
those agencies’ respective services for:
(1) Juveniles and young adults identified by the Office of the Attorney General as
high-risk; and
(2) Young adults identified by the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement
as high-risk.
(d) The Office of Unified Communications shall, in coordination with the Criminal Justice
Coordinating Council, provide monthly, to the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Deputy
Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, the Council, and impacted Advisory Neighborhood
Commissions, a list of all open and closed 311 requests for service, as well as their statuses, in the
Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement’s and Office of the Attorney General’s Cure the
Streets program’s Priority Areas and the top 10 neighborhoods with the highest incidences of gun
violence in the prior month.

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 Sec. 12. Gun violence prevention, intervention, and reduction programmatic and
operational transparency.
(a) No later than September 1, 2023, any plans submitted to the Office of the City
Administrator pursuant to Mayor’s Order 2023-061 shall be submitted to the Council.
(b) The Office of Gun Violence Prevention and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and
Engagement shall provide public notice on their websites and social media platforms, in the
District of Columbia Register, and to all Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and
Councilmembers, of grant funding the agencies intend to make available, including Building
Blocks DC grants, at least one month before the grant application’s closing date.

Sec. 13. Advocacy strategy regarding federal risks to the District’s public safety.
The Council, Mayor, and Attorney General shall, in consultation with the Judicial
Nomination Commission, Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and District of Columbia
Court of Appeals, develop a shared advocacy strategy directed toward:
(1) The White House and Congress to fill the District’s judicial vacancies; and
(2) Congress and the Bureau of Prisons to allow individuals convicted of District
of Columbia Code offenses who are in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons to return to the
Department of Corrections for the 6 months prior to their release from incarceration.

Rationale

New section 9

Public safety is improved through swift and certain sanctions for undesirable behavior. When cases
remain open, offenders are not held accountable and can continue to reoffend. Case closures are
foundational metrics that law enforcement agencies measure, and they should be shared publicly.
MPD does publish limited closure information currently, mostly relating to homicides. This
section would require MPD to publish closure information for all violent crimes, by offense, and
non-fatal shootings.

New section 10

In 2018, the Council passed legislation to create a new “red flag” law in the District – also known
as an Extreme Risk Protection Order (“ERPO”) law. The “red flag” law allows certain District
residents to petition the D.C. Superior Court to issue ERPOs, which require the immediate,
temporary removal of firearms and ammunition from people who would do harm to themselves or
others. We must employ every lawful avenue to get guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals,
but the “red flag” law has largely not been used or promoted since its passage. For example, the
Council provided funding to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety for a public
information campaign in the FY21 budget, but the funding was never used. In 2020, the Council
passed legislation to require the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice to create
an Extreme Risk Protection Order Implementation Working Group, but the Working Group was
never convened. Red flag laws are incredibly effective in other jurisdictions when implemented
with fidelity and effectively communicated to the public. But only approximately 15 cases have
been brought in the District since the law took effect.

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This section will better leverage the existing tools in our gun violence reduction toolbox by:

• Reviving the Extreme Risk Order Protection Working Group the Council created – but
which was allowed to sunset – and require the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice
to convene it no later than September 1, 2023;
• Requiring the Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) to prominently display
information about extreme risk protection orders on its website; and
• Requiring the Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) to develop and implement a public
awareness campaign to inform residents, professionals, and District government
employees about extreme risk protection orders, including the petition process – a
campaign the OAG is eager to launch.

Relevant report recommendation: District of Columbia Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board,
2022 Annual Report, p. 17. 1

New section 11

Subsection (a):

Although significant steps have been taken toward this goal, the District does not currently adhere
to a focused deterrence model of policing or gun violence reduction. In part, such a model identifies
individuals at highest risk of committing or being involved in gun violence (“hot people”) and
focuses law enforcement and non-law enforcement interventions to interrupt their behavior and
prevent future gun violence. One component of this model is a law enforcement-coordinated
shooting review, preferably within a larger gun violence rapid response center – akin to an
emergency operations center – with dedicated staff from across government and informed by
intragovernmental and community intelligence. This type of center would allow for focused
dispatches of specialized individuals to those at highest risk.

This subsection would require MPD to coordinate one portion of this larger focused deterrence
model by having law enforcement and supervision agencies – to the extent sensitive information
should be shared - review every shooting since the last shooting review, identify dynamics,
potential retaliation, and law enforcement or other touches with those persons – not with the goal
of cataloguing information, but rather to inform immediate interventions.

Relevant recommendation: National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, Washington, DC Gun
Violence Reduction Strategic Plan (2022) (“NICJR Strategic Plan”) 2, Recommendation #6A

Subsection (b)

https://ovsjg.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ovsjg/service_content/attachments/Domestic%20Violence%20Fatality
%20Review%20Board%202022%20Annual%20Report_.pdf.
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https://cjcc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/cjcc/page_content/attachments/DC%20Violence%20Reduction%20Stra
tegic%20Plan%20-%20April%202022.pdf.

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This subsection pairs with subsection (a) above to review each shooting that occurred since the
last shooting review from a services and response perspective, to identify and assign agency and
community partners to outreach and engage those high-risk individuals implicated by the
shootings. This should include representatives from the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the
Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement and its violence interruption contract staff, the
District’s network of Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs, the Office of the Attorney
General and its Cure the Streets initiative staff, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services,
the Deputy Mayor for Education, and the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, in
addition to representatives from implicated justice system agencies.

This section specifically requires the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice to coordinate a
bi-monthly Coordination Meeting/Intervention Services Shooting Review.

Relevant recommendation:

NICJR Strategic Plan, Recommendation #6B; Mayor Bowser’s Safer, Stronger DC Advisory
Committee, Final Report, Community Stabilization Subcommittee Recommendation #1 3

Subsection (c)

The Office of the Attorney General most often encounters young people post-arrest, including
young people arrested for serious violent crimes. However, OAG is not part of the Executive
Branch and does not have the ability to provide direct services. In almost every case, the young
people and high-risk adults OAG encounters have severe unmet needs and have been
unsuccessfully seeking services for some time. The Office of Neighborhood Safety and
Engagement’s (“ONSE”) priority individuals, such as those in the Pathways Program, similarly
need urgent access to supportive services. This proposal would require that four of the agencies
most critical to stabilizing high-risk individuals -- the Department of Behavioral Health, Child and
Family Services Agency, Department of Employment Services, and Department of Motor Vehicles
– prioritize those identified by OAG and ONSE. Since other parts of this emergency legislation
take the approach of detaining young people and adults arrested for the most serious crimes, those
same young people – to the extent they are also identified as high-risk by OAG and ONSE – should
be immediately provided services to prevent recidivism.

Subsection (d)

A successful model of focused deterrence also requires targeted non-law enforcement

interventions to reduce crime in “hot places”, including by addressing neighborhood conditions
through improved lighting and tree maintenance, mowing, trash collection, blight reduction and
housing conditions remediation, and infrastructure repairs. The Executive began this work under
the Emergency Operations Center by using 311 data to identify focus blocks throughout the
District. This subsection will use tools that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (“CJCC”)

https://doh.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/doh/page_content/attachments/SSDC%20Advisory%20Committee%20
Final%20Report%20May%202016%20v%206%2021%2016_new.docx.pdf

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already possesses and information it collects to help the Office of Unified Communications
(“OUC”) identify, and decisionmakers prioritize, 311 requests in communities that experience the
most gun violence.

Specifically, the subsection requires OUC, in coordination with CJCC, to provide monthly, to the
Office of Gun Violence Prevention, the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, the Council,
and impacted Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, a list of all open and closed 311 requests for
service, as well as their statuses, in the ONSE’s and OAG’s Cure the Streets program’s Priority
Areas and the top 10 neighborhoods with the highest incidences of gun violence in the prior month.

New section 12

Subsection (a)

On May 15, 2023, Mayor Bowser issued Mayor’s Order 2023-061, Districtwide Review of
Violence Reduction Programs, which required the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice,
the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, the Deputy Mayor for Education, and the
Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure to submit plans to the City Administrator with
gun violence reduction-related recommendations for the agencies and programs under their
respective jurisdictions. Those plans were to be submitted by June 29. This proposal would require
those plans to be shared with the Council no later than September 1, 2023.

Subsection (b)

The Office of Gun Violence Prevention (“OGVP”) – through the Progressive Life Center – issues
grants for community-based violence prevention, intervention, and reduction initiatives. These
grants often go to community leaders who would not otherwise have the capacity to apply through
more formal grant processes. However, notice of funding availability is sometimes released with
little more than a few days before the applications are due, and it is not widely disseminated. This
subsection will ensure that there is more time to spread the word about this critical funding, as well
as funding from ONSE, before the grant applications close by requiring the OGVP and ONSE to
provide public notice on their websites and social media platforms, in the D.C. Register, and to all
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and Councilmembers, of grant funding the agencies
intend to make available, including Building Blocks DC grants, at least one month before the grant
application’s closing date.

New section 13

The thirteen judicial vacancies on the Superior Court and D.C. Court of Appeals pose significant
public safety risks. They delay justice for victims, defendants, and the community. They ensure
defendants detained pre-trial lose the community supports they need to successfully reenter. Those
defendants’ detention causes the District to incur significant costs. Judicial vacancies inflate pre-
trial supervision caseloads, reducing supervision personnel’s ability to provide adequate
supervision. For those defendants not detained pre-trial, judicial vacancies mean those defendants
who would have been found guilty spend longer without a swift and certain sanction and are

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allowed more time to reoffend. Aging cases also mean evidence grows stale, making successful
prosecutions less likely.

The incarceration of individuals for D.C. Code felony convictions in the Bureau of Prisons’
custody is also a public safety risk. They are sent across the country, disconnected from community
supports, and the District government does not even have access to their locations or projected
release dates. They are confined in dangerous and inhumane facilities, and the District has no
control over their conditions of confinement. Allowing D.C. Code offenders to return to the
District at least six months pre-release would allow them to rebuild community ties and enroll in
the D.C. Department of Corrections’ reentry programming. This will, in turn, make them less likely
to reoffend upon release.

This subsection will better coordinate the District’s federal advocacy to key officials regarding
two of the many urgent actions the federal government could immediately take to improve public
safety in the District.