D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Metropolitan Police leaders unveiled a new police unit Thursday to crack down on the city’s growing juvenile crime problem and track the young offenders’ rehabilitation after arrest.
Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela A. Smith said the Juvenile Investigative Response Unit, or JIRU, will launch later this month in response to an increasing number of teenagers and preteens linked to major crimes and fights at school.
“As many of you know, young people are incredibly near and dear to my heart,” Chief Smith said at a press event in Navy Yard. “They are our future, and it deeply concerns me when I see them veering off down a path that most of us probably do not want our children going down.”
Police data shows violent crime is down 26% across the District, and while the chief said she didn’t have numbers on hand detailing the rise in youth-involved crime, she mentioned she’s seeing “the same faces all the time” in crime briefings with staff.
MPD disclosed a series of recent violent crime arrests where underage suspects were taken into custody:
• A 12-year-old boy was nabbed Tuesday in connection with an armed carjacking in Northeast last summer.
• That same day, a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy were arrested after being linked to a separate armed carjacking last month on the 1700 block of 16th Street Southeast.
• A 13-year-old girl from Hyattsville, Maryland, turned herself in last week after she was accused of opening fire on someone on the 5600 block of East Capitol Street Northeast.
The chief credited the department’s Youth and Family Engagement Division and its Investigate Services Bureau for working to close many of the department’s juvenile cases. Still, she pushed for the JIRU to centralize active probes against young suspects that are scattered across the department’s seven police districts.
The JIRU intends to deepen the police department’s relationships with the city’s Child and Family Services Agency, the Department of Human Services and the Office of the Attorney General, which prosecutes the bulk of the juvenile crime in the District.
In terms of preventing crime, Chief Smith said the new unit will also look to interrupt ongoing disputes between young people and those beefs from spiraling into future crimes. The unit will also be involved in the juveniles’ progression through diversion programs following their convictions.
“Our success will be measured by tracking recidivism,” the chief said.
Chief Smith denied that the JIRU was created in response to President Trump’s growing interest in addressing crime and disorder in the nation’s capital.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, signed an order last week to make the District “safe, beautiful, and prosperous” by creating a task force that will, in part, surge police officers in public areas and “strictly enforce” quality-of-life crimes.
The order also says it will strengthen pre-trial detention policies, expedite concealed-carry licenses, stop fare evasion on Metro transit and help bring more recruits into MPD.
The District, which is run almost entirely by Democrats, is currently lobbying the GOP-controlled House to reverse a $1 billion budget cut included in last month’s federal stopgap legislation.
City leaders said the law will force cuts to multiple city agencies, including the Metropolitan Police Department.
