The U.S. Attorney’s Office for DC announced a 35 percent reduction in violent crime on Friday, touting the success of violence interruption programs and interventions from law enforcement.
“The strategy this Office began to employ shortly after I came into this role has been to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on the drivers of violence — those gangs or crews of people who are dealing drugs, protecting turf, committing carjackings and other robberies, all while armed,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who announced his resignation earlier this week.
“It takes time to develop these investigations and prosecutions, but this is the fruit of that labor — a reduction in the violent crime — that D.C. is now seeing,” he added.
Last year, the city’s murder rate reached a 30 year peak, prompting lawmakers and community leaders to intervene in non-traditional outreach efforts that tackled illegal firearm possession and neighborhood gang violence.
As a result, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) recorded a 32 percent decrease in homicides; a 39 percent drop in robberies; armed carjackings are down 53 percent; assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27 percent when compared with 2023 levels.
The success comes after the city’s Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) appointed Pamela A. Smith to serve as the police chief following the departure of Robert Contee.
“We started to leverage technology like never before here in D.C. especially here at MPD, you know, the mayor approved the increase of CCTV cameras across the city," Smith, the former United States Park Police Chief told NBC4 Washington.
Officers were able to employ the use of a real time crime center which helps authorities process footage more efficiently and utilize a reaccredited crime lab for investigations within the District after three years of closure.
