Councilmember Pinto announces passage of emergency public safety bills

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Zoe Ades, Communications Director  

zades@dccouncil.gov

COUNCILMEMBER PINTO ANNOUNCES PASSAGE OF EMERGENCY PUBLIC SAFETY BILLS  

Today, the DC Council passed Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s slate of emergency public safety bills — the “Prioritizing Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act of 2023,” the “Law Enforcement Vehicular Pursuit Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2023,” and the “Office of Unified Communications Transparency and Accuracy Emergency Amendment Act of 2023.” These bills will address pressing gaps in our legal system and public safety apparatus by promoting accountability for offenders, supporting victims, ensuring police have the tools they need to keep communities safe, and improving accountability and transparency at our 911 call center.  

“Today our government leaders came together to take immediate action to pass my legislation, addressing our public safety emergency and taking tangible steps to make our city safer this summer,” said Councilmember Pinto. “I am proud of the robust support my legislation received and am grateful to Mayor Bowser for her partnership in developing and putting forward this common-sense legislation. Today’s vote sends a clear message that the current state of crime and violence cannot be tolerated and that our government is working together to make DC residents safer. We must continue to build on the legislation we passed today to better invest in preventative tools and interrupt cycles of violence. However, this legislation is a major step forward in our efforts to create a safer DC for all our residents.”

The Prioritizing Public Safety Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 will:  

Prevent crime and violence by  

• Creating a rebuttable presumption in favor of pre-trial detention for adults who committed a crime of violence;
• Creating a rebuttable presumption in favor of pre-trial detention for juveniles who commit specific dangerous crimes or crime of violences, whether or not they were armed;

• Expanding the private security camera rebate program.

Ensure accountability for offenders by

• Creating a new offense of “endangerment with a firearm” which makes it a felony for someone to fire a gun in public;
• Clarifying that GPS records in the possession of the Pretrial Services Agency (PSA) can be admissible to prove a defendant’s guilt in a criminal case or other judicial proceeding;
• Making misdemeanor arrest warrants extraditable when persons leave the District after committing a crime.  

Protect victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence by

• Extending liability for certain sexual offenses to contractors of organizations;
• Directing courts to expedite cases involving a child victim.  

Increase data sharing and transparency by

• Requiring CJCC to post data on the process and outcome of programs, including diversion, and outcomes of alternative dispositions and sentencing agreements.

The Law Enforcement Vehicular Pursuit Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 clarifies the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Act of 2022 to address Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) concerns that the language of the legislation requires MPD to implement a no-pursuit policy in regards to vehicles – a policy no jurisdiction in the United States has – limiting MPD’s ability to pursue dangerous individuals, even in the most extreme of circumstances. The emergency legislation makes clarifying changes to the limitation on vehicle pursuits to ensure that MPD can authorize its officers to engage in pursuits when necessary to protect the public’s safety. The legislation would retain strict limits on pursuits, allowing pursuits only where the fleeing suspect has committed a crime of violence or poses an imminent threat to public safety, and where pursuit is necessary and can be conducted in a way that mitigates the risk of injury to innocent people.  

The Office of Unified Communications Transparency and Accuracy Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 moves on an emergency basis accountability and transparency measures that Councilmember Pinto introduced in the “Office of Unified Communications Transparency and Accuracy Amendment Act” last month. Understanding the urgent needs to improve the operations at OUC and ensure the public has access to transparent data, the emergency legislation enables these measures to go into effect immediately.  

The Office of Unified Communications Transparency and Accuracy Emergency Amendment Act of 2023 will:  

• Require OUC to publicly post data each month on the agency’s website on agency operations, such as the number of call-taker and dispatcher errors and the cause of those errors, the number of shifts operated under minimum staffing levels, call to answer times, the number of calls dropped, and the number and type of 911 misuse calls.  
• Require OUC to collect and publicly post data each month on the agency’s website on the number of 911 calls received that are eligible to be diverted to alternative responses and the number of those eligible calls that are diverted.

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