KEEPING OUR CITIZENS & COMMUNITIES SAFE

VINCE GRAY’S PLAN FOR PUBLIC SAFETY IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL

OVERVIEW
Vince Gray knows that you can’t talk about giving our kids a world-class
education or attracting businesses and creating jobs, without discussing the
imperative of creating safe communities.

The first responsibility of government is to ensure the safety and well-being

of the people it serves. Vince Gray knows that Washingtonians have public
safety services that are not on par with the surrounding jurisdictions or the
nation as a whole. The quality of public safety services varies by ward and
neighborhood – even by street. Too many children and families are being
victimized by violent crime for no other reason than they live in a dangerous
neighborhood.

While we have made some progress in the past 10 years in some areas of
public safety, progress in other areas has remained stagnant or has
atrophied. We can – and should – do more to make our city safer and better
prepared to handle emergencies when they arise. Vince Gray knows that
until our law enforcement officers start getting the support they need from
the Mayor’s office, their jobs will continue to be that much harder and more
dangerous than they should be, and too many people will be victimized by
crime. And he also understands that until we start doing more to deal with
the root causes of crime on the frontend, we’ll never end this vicious circle of
violence.

Vince Gray isn’t interested in platitudes or stale, worn-out approaches to

these matters. He will employ well-defined strategies that center on
community involvement, sustainability, focused leadership, respect,
proactive and proper resourcing, and consistent execution. He will repair
damaged relationships with our front-line public safety workers. He will
harness the energy of community activism. He will establish focused
leadership in public safety, give this critical issue a real voice, and educate
all on this vision.

Similar to all areas of government, a significant challenge for these initiatives

involves proper funding for sustainable strategies. A Gray Administration will
effectuate changes that leverage available funding resources such as grants and
federal partnerships and hold agency directors accountable to stay within budget.
The absence of high-level public safety leadership has allowed certain agencies to
engage in unchecked overspending. Throughout the Fenty Administration,
overspending within FEMS overtime alone has regularly exceeded $7 million per
year. Seizing control of this rampant overspending will serve as a source of funding
for sustainable improvement strategies.
Vince Gray’s plan for public safety is based on five core principles geared
toward making sure that people are safe – and feel safe – regardless of
where they live, work, or play.

1. We must restore coordination and accountability in the

District’s public safety efforts. With all of the different federal and
city agencies involved in the District’s public safety efforts, we need a
single point person to help coordinate all of their efforts. By
reestablishing the position of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and
Justice, the District will have a single, senior point of coordination and
accountability for the multitude of city services that must work
together to ensure the public’s safety and sense of safety.

2. We must end youth violence and reduce juvenile crime. It’s

time we overhaul our hugely dysfunctional juvenile justice and
rehabilitation system so that the city’s youths are less likely to engage
in criminal activity and more likely to receive the treatment and wrap-
around services they need if they do come in contact with the juvenile
justice system.

3. We must make sure that we bring strategic change to the

Metropolitan Police Department. It’s time the District stopped
paying lip service to the concept of community policing, and took
concrete steps to build permanent working relationships with police
officers and the communities they serve. We need to make the
Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) the agency it should be, through
a variety of initiatives that will improve crime-fighting strategies,
attract high-caliber candidates, reward hard-working officers, and
improve retention.

4. We must crack down on violent offenders, while creating real

opportunities for rehabilitation. Vince knows that too many of the
criminals we see in the criminal justice system have been arrested
before. Recidivism is as much a symptom of the failure of our
rehabilitation and re-entry systems as it is a function of a system that
fails to produce a certainty of punishment. As Mayor, Vince Gray will
explore ways to toughen our criminal code so that people know that
they’ll spend hard time in prison if they’re convicted of violent crimes.
He will also work to improve our offender re-entry system so that
people who are coming back into society after being incarcerated
stand a better chance at successfully reintegrating themselves with
civil society. Returning citizens want and need jobs and we should
help them achieve that goal.

5. We must reinvigorate stalled reform of our emergency medical

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 services system, and ensure world-class agency operations.
Efforts to improve delivery of emergency medical services were
initiated after the 2007 release of Task Force recommendations, but
several recommendations continue to lag and reform efforts have been
stalled. As several recent public failures illustrate, we must commit to
reform of EMS service delivery in order to ensure world-class pre-
hospital care. The current administration has stalled these efforts.
Vince Gray will ensure that continuous improvement of these services
becomes a reality.

CREATING COORDINATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC SAFETY

EFFORTS
There are a lot of moving pieces in the District’s public safety and justice
system. In addition to the Metropolitan Police Department, over 30 legally
constituted police forces operate in the city. The federal government
oversees major components of the District’s justice system, including the
city’s courts, the prosecutor’s office, the Bureau of Prisons, Court Social
Services, and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency, which is
responsible for adult offender supervision. The District of Columbia is
responsible for the D.C. Jail, which houses offenders with sentences of less
than one year, and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS),
which serves committed youth. Other District public safety agencies include
the Fire and EMS Department, the Homeland Security and Emergency
Management Agency, and the Office of Unified Communications. This is a
difficult landscape in which to ensure service delivery and effect change.
Planning, communication, and cooperation among these entities have proven
sorely inadequate.

For four years, there has been no single, senior point of authority or
accountability in the District Government for ensuring that public safety
services and initiatives are planned and delivered in a coordinated fashion.
And too often, our public safety agencies lack transparency and sound
management, which leaves District residents without sufficient information
to have real trust in the system. Without coordination and accountability,
fingers get pointed, excuses get made, and the public suffers. Vince Gray
will restore that coordination and accountability by appointing a Deputy
Mayor for Public Safety and Justice, thus reestablishing the this important
role.

The Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice will bring focus to combating
crime and increasing the public’s safety and wellbeing. The Deputy Mayor
will coordinate all of the District’s public safety agencies; develop
comprehensive public safety objectives; establish collaborative relationships
with partner public safety agencies, neighboring jurisdictions, community

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groups, and the public; and serve as a senior-level point of authority. Vince
Gray will establish a holistic public safety strategy, not wasteful and sporadic
efforts to quell public outrage. Unconstitutional checkpoints, legally and
practically suspect anti-loitering laws, dismissal of public involvement,
disregard for front-line public safety employees, and deficient
implementation will no longer be relied upon for results. District residents
deserve results based on tangible strategies, not shifting national trends.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Re-establish the position of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and

Justice. Vince Gray knows how critical it is that there is someone at the top
who has the experience to lead a complex public safety system, reduce
fragmentation and parochialism through coordination and collaboration, and
ensure that the public safety services of the Nation’s Capital are second to
none. As Mayor, Vince Gray will re-establish the position of Deputy Mayor
for Public Safety and Justice and will appoint a recognized expert to that
position to ensure comprehensive leadership and forge collaboration
between all – the District’s public safety agencies, Federal partners,
Jurisdictional partners, and critical social services.

Focus on bias-related crime prevention. Crime and violence that

targets individuals based on immutable traits is too prevalent in the District.
Bias-related crimes have not received enough attention or resources under
the current Administration. Vince Gray’s Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and
Justice will serve as the leader on this issue, prioritize bias-related crime
reporting, and unite resources to develop relationships with community
leaders and provide services to victims and community groups. Vince Gray
will:
• Dedicate additional resources to the Metropolitan Police Department’s
liaison units. Bias-related crimes are more than just violations of the
law; they operate as messages of hate and intolerance directed at an
entire community. For that reason, a Vince Gray Administration will
focus on sending a strong and swift message back that the District as a
community will not tolerate this hate. This means additional training
for all MPD officers to identify and report bias-related crimes, involving
community groups to encourage better reporting and foster
relationships with the public, dedicated command officers for each
liaison unit, and collaboration with the prosecution in order to
maximize convictions.

Maintain accurate records. The District is currently plagued with the

problem of shoddy record-keeping in certain city agencies. Over the past
several years, the Office of the Inspector General has released reports that
chronicle a lack of appropriate care and attention with regard to reports of

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missing children and adults in need of care. It is unacceptable that such
reports have been carelessly left on office floors and in piles in warehouses.
Our city residents deserve better. As Mayor, Vince Gray will task the Deputy
Mayor with overseeing vital record-keeping functions, as well as ensuring
that crime statistics and other performance measures are accurately
reported.

Develop an inter-agency approach to crime prevention. The Deputy

Mayor will be responsible for exercising the power of the Executive Branch to
forge meaningful cooperative arrangements between the police department
and other city agencies and non-governmental organizations that have the
capacity to eliminate the conditions that breed crime and detract from public
safety. The Deputy Mayor also will work with surrounding jurisdictions and
effectuate and implement border agreements to stem cross-jurisdictional
crime.

Improve the operation of public safety grants programs. We need to

do a better job of monitoring grant money that is available and of submitting
sophisticated grant applications so the city’s residents can benefit from the
resources available. As Mayor, Vince Gray will direct his Deputy Mayor to
develop a “dashboard” system to track key performance metrics related to
grant opportunities. This dashboard will also allow the public to know about
the financial status of federal grants programs. This sort of accountability is
exactly what’s needed to ensure that we don’t have to return grants dollars
to the federal government.

Taking politics out of public safety. Too often under the current
Administration, we’ve seen public safety decisions made based on political
motives. The Trinidad roadblock initiative is a perfect example. Following
some high-profile shootings, the police department, under pressure from the
Mayor and Attorney General Peter Nickles, implemented a system of
roadblocks to prevent people who didn’t have “a good reason” from driving
into the Trinidad neighborhood. You don’t need a law degree to know that
the Mayor’s program was clearly unconstitutional, and the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said so in no uncertain terms. In the Gray
Administration, all public safety decisions will be based on public safety
needs – not newspaper headlines. As Mayor, Vince Gray will ensure that the
staffing and deployment of public safety resources is aligned with need and
is not based on politics. Additionally, the Deputy Mayor will ensure that
strategies and tactics to address persistent issues are long-term and the
product of deliberate planning and community involvement, not short-term
ploys and gimmicks.

ENDING YOUTH VIOLENCE AND REDUCING JUVENILE CRIME

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The involvement of juveniles in violent crime is a grave concern to the
residents across the District of Columbia. While juvenile arrests comprised
only 8% of all arrests in the District of Columbia in FY 2009, juveniles
accounted for over one third of all arrests for violent crimes (homicide, rape,
robbery, and aggravated assault). Youth violence, and especially youth
homicide, is simply unacceptable in the nation’s capital. Our system of
juvenile justice is dysfunctional. Services are “stove-piped,” coordination
between local and federal agencies is poor, critical information is withheld
from those in the best position to help, and meaningful services are often
poorly coordinated. Vince Gray will work to develop a juvenile justice and
youth development strategy that balances enforcement, intervention,
prevention and care, and treatment.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will continue to move juvenile justice reform forward in
the District, while strengthening the law enforcement, court system, juvenile
justice, and community-based organization partnerships that are the key to
targeting those youth most at-risk of committing or being a victim of crime
or violence. Vince Gray will draw on his experiences as Executive Director of
Covenant House where he worked every day with youth who, despite the
challenges of poverty, father absence, poor schools and lack of resources,
showed great resiliency and went on to lead successful lives.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Implement the recommendations of the 2009 Blueprint for

combating youth violence. In 2009, under Vince Gray’s leadership, the
D.C. Council commissioned Responding to Gang, Crew and Youth Violence in
the District of Columbia: A Blueprint for Action. The Blueprint provides a
useful framework for developing a comprehensive, community-based
strategy to prevent youth involvement in violence, and address its root
causes. Tragically, the current mayor has ignored the report and continues
to make policy decisions that are contrary to its recommendations. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will continue to move forward with implementing the
recommendations of the Blueprint, guided by the following principles that
frame the report:
• Violence is preventable and prevention must be sustained by the
development of strong communities;
• Youth violence reflects broader family, community, social, and cultural
dynamics requiring comprehensive long term and sustained responses.
• Youth violence prevention and positive youth development requires a
strong partnership between public and private agencies and young
people themselves.

Use data to shape efforts to reduce youth violence and juvenile

crime. When data are collected fully and impartially, the solutions often

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begin to present themselves. Vince Gray will make sure that his
Administration’s approach to juvenile justice reform in the District continues
to be data-driven. We need to know how many youth, on any given day, are
not in school, or otherwise are not where they are supposed to be. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will listen to the community to help determine where the
needs are most acute, and will develop policies that respond strategically to
what the data show, and what the people who are most directly affected by
youth violence and juvenile crime – families, teachers, coaches, ministers,
and mentors – have to say about the best solution.

Assure that MPD partners with the community to respond to critical

incidents of youth- related violence. The nationally recognized Gang
Intervention Partnership that until recently served Ward One, and the
programs funded under the Citywide Coordinating Council for Youth Violence
Prevention have proven to assist with case closure and contribute to
breaking the cycles of violence, prevent retribution crimes, and increase
public safety. As Mayor, Vince Gray will ensure that the MPD implements
these models citywide.

Assure safe passages for our youth so that they can go to school
and recreation centers without fear of violence. Many youth don’t
attend school or take advantage of the recreational resources in their
neighborhoods because they need to cross over crew and gang boundaries
to do so. As Mayor, Vince Gray will task the Deputy Mayor to work with MPD
to identify those DCPS and Charter middle schools, high schools, and
recreation centers most at risk of youth violence in or near these facilities.
Site-specific safety plans will be developed within six months by joint MPD,
school personnel, recreation center staff and community-based
organizations. These stakeholders will identify crew affiliations and conflicts
and address how to assure safe passages and provide a coordinated
response to conflicts.

Facilitate inter-agency information sharing. There must be

information sharing, concerning young people who are supposed to be
receiving services from social service agencies in the District, but are at-risk
of falling through the holes in the “safety net.” Too often our juvenile
confidentiality laws have been used to conceal the ineptitude of agency
officials in the name of juvenile confidentiality. Of course, confidential
information about a child should be handled with care and never abused –
but there are times when public safety is at risk, or the safety of the young
person, him or herself, is at-risk, when people need to know what agencies
they can appeal to for help and hold accountable for their actions. As Mayor,
Vince Gray will work to make sure our juvenile confidentiality laws balance
the interests of public safety with the best interests of the young people.

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Implement a “carrot-and-stick” approach. Law enforcement agencies
must work in partnership with the District’s community-based organizations,
churches, social service organizations, schools, sports teams or other
neighborhood associations in order to have an impact on youth violence and
juvenile crime. The City of Boston is widely recognized for its novel and
successful approach to quelling youth violence. The key to Boston’s
successful youth violence prevention initiative was collaboration among law
enforcement, social service, and community-based organizations. This
collaboration allowed Boston to provide positive, meaningful, structured
opportunities to young people on the one hand, with the threat of strict
enforcement of local and federal gun laws and zero tolerance for violence on
the other. As Mayor, Vince Gray will draw from Boston’s experience and his
experience on the Council of the District of Columbia in spearheading a
juvenile violence prevention initiative to improve juvenile justice approaches
here.

Hold the Department of Youth Rehabilitative Services responsible

for better outcomes for youth under its custody. The reform efforts of
the past five years have led to closing the outdated and inhumane Oak Hill
Detention Center and replacing it with a smaller state-of-the-art facility, New
Beginnings, and new community-based partnerships to serve returning
youth. While recidivism rates have been going down, a number of recent
tragedies have shown the price of failure. Troubled youth are often placed in
the community without adequate supervision or the support necessary to
succeed and stay out of trouble. Too often, these youth end up being killed
or charged with murder. The District’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation
Services must be held to the highest standards of accountability for youths
committed to its custody and supervision. Currently, New Beginnings is
understaffed and over capacity. As Mayor, Vince Gray will ensure that an
assessment process is implemented by recognized leaders to address
overcrowding, determine appropriate capacities, including proper staffing at
New Beginnings, and will implement the recommendations that stem from
the assessment.

Assess services necessary for at-risk youth. Through his earlier career
running the Department of Human Services and Covenant House, Vince Gray
understands that children who are raised in households in which family
violence and substance abuse occurs, or in which one or more family
member is incarcerated, face staggering obstacles in their lives. However,
every dollar spent at the “front-end” of the system (programs and services
for at-risk youths) will save tens of thousands of dollars spent at the “back
end” (court costs and incarceration). Our current juvenile justice “strategy”
is lacking in ways that continue to force troubled youth into gangs and to use
drugs, ultimately, keeping them in the “revolving door” of incarceration.
There must be strong community partnerships between the police and DYRS,

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as well as other agency and court officials, in the communities. Vince Gray
will listen, and require his agency heads to listen to what the people who are
most directly affected by youth violence and juvenile crime – families,
teachers, coaches, ministers, and mentors, and the youth themselves – have
to say about the best solution. As Mayor, Vince Gray will continue to move
juvenile justice reform forward in the District, while strengthening the law
enforcement, court system, juvenile justice and community-based
organization (CBO) partnerships that are key to targeting those youth most
at-risk of committing or being a victim of crime or violence. As Mayor, Vince
will also convene a team of advisors to assess the needs of at-risk youth in
the District to determine how best to coordinate the services for this
population.

Provide meaningful vocational and technical training in the

District’s corrections system. Because the District houses only
misdemeanants and those held pending trial or transfer to another penal
institution, inmate training and education in the D.C. jail have been sorely
neglected. Vince Gray’s Administration will not make this mistake. The
Williams Administration successfully innovated improvement of healthcare in
the D.C. jail by ensuring that healthcare in the jail and in the community was
connected seamlessly. This fostered better quality and an improved
continuum of care for people stuck in a cycle of being in and out of jail. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will use a similar approach to connect vocational training
programs between inside and outside of the D.C. Jail to ensure that people
are given a means to escape the revolving door of recidivism.

Strengthen relationships with DC Superior Court and Court Social

Services. On any given day, over two-thirds of the youth involved in the
juvenile justice system are being served by the federally funded and
controlled Court Social Services (CSS). This agency is responsible for over
1,700 youth annually who are placed on probation under court supervision or
securely detained at the Youth Services Center pre-adjudication. Too often,
the poor flow of information between CSS, MPD, DYRS, and community
organizations allows for youth to fall between the cracks and to engage in
further criminal behavior. As Mayor, Vince Gray will direct the District’s to
engage the D.C. Superior Court and Court Social Services and develop new
information sharing and collaborative work protocols.

ELEVATE COMMUNITY POLICING PRIORITIES

Metropolitan Police Department officers should be a part of this city and its
neighborhoods. Instead of merely talking about community policing, Mayor
Gray will take concrete steps to build permanent working relationships with
police officers and the communities they serve. Vince will help make MPD
the agency it should be, through a variety of initiatives that will improve

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crime-fighting strategies, attract high-caliber candidates, reward hard-
working officers, and improve retention.

Vince will eliminate the District’s dependency on arrests as the solution to

crime. The cornerstone to a successful anti-crime strategy involves
education, community policing, consistent enforcement, social services, and
the certainty of punishment.

The Department must address deployment and resource issues so that

officers on patrol have the tools to be effective and efficient and are visible
to the community. Under Vince Gray’s leadership, the District will develop
long-term solutions to its recruitment and retention of officers so that there
will be a sufficient number of officers to patrol effectively.

District residents and business owners want a police department that is

engaged in their daily lives. Vince Gray will set the tone that community
policing doesn’t mean driving through a neighborhood with the windows
rolled up – it means having police officers weave themselves into the fabric
of the community through long-term involvement in the community.
Providing increased incentives for community-police interaction, and
promoting a commitment to the community in which the officer serves, will
be an important part of building a patrol-based, community-oriented police
force.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Redefine Community Policing.

The community policing “strategy” that our city has pursued to date has
placed undue emphasis on increased visibility, but much of the visibility has
been superficial. We cannot be satisfied with gimmicky efforts to increase
visibility, such as flashing police car lights. Criminals know that all they have
to do is wait out the show of force so they can get back to their “work.” True
community policing requires that police and all members of the community
work together, on a deep level, to reduce crime.

The Gray Administration would implement a number of initiatives to develop

the kind of community policing we need in the District of Columbia:

Vince Gray will ensure that those police officers who are currently serving in
assignments that can be effectively transitioned to civilian responsibility are
reassigned to patrol assignments. Currently, more than 200 police officers
are serving in administrative assignments that can be handled by civilian
employees. By backfilling many of these positions with civilian employees,
more officers will be available for community policing patrol duties.

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Develop “Home Grown” Public Safety Employees and increase the
number of police officers living in the District of Columbia. The
District benefits when its public safety employees are District residents.
Having our public safety workforce personally vested in the District will foster
community relationships, enable true community policing, improve retention
rates, keep taxpayer dollars home, and improve the standard of living for all.
Unfortunately, currently only 19% of the District’s police officers live in the
city. That’s way too low. Getting police officers to live in the District
improves public safety at the same time that it creates economic benefits for
the City. But we can’t mandate that police officers live in the District – doing
so has to be attractive and affordable to our officers so they choose the
District over other places. As Mayor, Vince Gray will work to increase the
number of police officers living in the District by the end of his first term. He
will develop workforce housing initiatives which will induce police officers to
move into the District. He’ll explore the wide range of options, including tax
breaks and housing subsidies. And he will establish and promote cadet
programs that are based on educational partnerships that create a career
path for our young people to enter public safety services.

Stabilize the Public Safety Employees Workforce. The city spends

millions of dollars on the recruiting and training public safety employees only
to lose many of these employees to neighboring jurisdictions. This is the
result of many factors such as a failure to adopt shift schedules that appeal
to more workers and lack of competitive pay and benefits as compared to
nearby jurisdictions. As Mayor, Vince Gray will task the Deputy Mayor with
evaluating the problem of poor retention and developing better tools for
retaining all of our public safety workforce (police, firefighters, paramedics,
etc.).

Create a meaningful career advancement ladder for officers who

wish to stay in patrol duties. Police officers begin their careers in patrol,
and many remain in patrol a long time. However, personal aspirations or the
need to earn more money can create an incentive for patrol officers to seek
promotion or move to a specialized assignment, meaning that too often
communities lose excellent community police officers. As Mayor, Vince Gray
will initiate programs and policies to encourage police officers to remain as
patrol officers and become a permanent part of the neighborhoods they
serve. Recognizing that police officers do have career considerations and
decisions to make, Vince will work to create a new career path in the
Department based on community service and interaction. These policies and
programs will not only develop better community relations, but will help
increase police presence. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
• Provide pay incentives for officers who choose to remain in patrol;
and live within the District of Columbia;

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 • Provide housing incentives for patrol officers that will allow them to
live and work in the same patrol service area; and
• Create new incentives for residential development projects to
include workforce housing for police officers.

Elevate the importance of community outreach positions at MPD. A

central point of contact for both police officers and civilians must be
established in each police district. This individual will be a police captain
who will be accountable to the community and to the Department for
designing, implementing, and administering police services for the
community. The Department will delegate substantial authority to the
districts, based on the recognition that different areas of the city have
different needs. This individual will be responsible for interactions with
residents, activists, Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, youth groups,
faith-based organizations, grass-roots advocacy groups, non-profits,
business, and city agencies other than MPD. Whereas in the past,
community outreach positions were given to lower-level supervisors, under
Vince Gray’s leadership, being an effective community services official will
be viewed as a prestigious position, and community service skills will be a
requirement for career advancement. As Mayor, Vince Gray will direct the
MPD to appoint this type of high-level point of contact in each community.

Create the One City Forward Initiative. This initiative will take off where
Mayor Williams’ Neighborhood Action initiative left off by bringing together
police and fire/EMS with front line workers from other agencies to remediate
persistent problem areas. Many issues in neighborhoods cannot be solved
by any one agency and coordinated approaches are necessary to address
intractable problems. As Mayor, Vince Gray will create and launch
Community and Police Neighborhood Problem Solving Meetings that will
involve Community residents and neighborhood police officers in
determining the policing priorities for local neighborhoods. These meetings
will focus on using citizen input to develop specific strategies to address the
neighborhood crime concerns and order maintenance concerns identified by
residents and involve community members, neighborhood services staff
members and community police officers to effectively address the specific
crime and order maintenance problems in the community with specific
action plans. The neighborhood action plans will be folded into the
Neighborhood Services program as part of the One City Forward initiative.
Neighborhood Services staff will engage residents in neighborhoods to
determine needs and opportunities in planning exercises and in creating
neighborhood service action plans. Neighborhood Service plans will fold into
a citywide citizen summit that will provide a public voice in determining
government priorities then tailored to specific communities and
neighborhoods.

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Provide the community with transparency regarding deployment. If
we are truly to engage the community in keeping neighborhoods safe, there
needs to be a level of transparency greater than what we’re seeing now. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will make sure that MPD openly discusses its deployment
decisions and strategies with neighborhood and community groups in order
to address deficiencies and avoid complaints and misunderstandings (when
such discussion will not jeopardize ongoing investigations). MPD will not
engage in tactics such as the now-infamous quarantine of the Trinidad
neighborhood without significant engagement with the community and the
District will not violate the Constitution in any of its crime fighting strategies.

Encourage community participation in crime-solving. In some areas of

the city, residents’ reluctance to cooperate with the police facilitates criminal
activity. With true community policing that develops real relationships in the
neighborhoods, we can begin to address this problem. This requires an
understanding, however, that community policing is more than the MPD
simply sending an officer once a month to recite crime statistics at a
community meeting. True community policing means institutionalizing a
“philosophy” that is incorporated throughout the Agency, recognizing that all
aspects of police operations must understand that the community is the
critical partner of police operations. All aspects of the police agency must
work with the community to identify and address the crime and disorder
issues that are found in different communities throughout the District of
Columbia. This approach focuses on a full community policing approach that
incorporates problem solving, visibility, community involvement, community
trust and respect and crime reduction. Having officers continually
interacting with the community to devise order maintenance and crime
control strategies that are based on and leverage the community’s deep
involvement in addressing root causes of crime and disorder. As Mayor,
Vince Gray will ensure that the city does a better job of (i) educating the
public on the importance of their assistance; (ii) ensuring that information
lines are properly staffed and that the representatives receiving information
are professional and supportive; and (iii) widely publicizing successes,
thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of police-community cooperation.
As Mayor, Vince Gray and the Chief of Police won’t just be in neighborhoods
for photo opportunities and sound bites at the scene of major crimes, but
rather for sustained, meaningful involvement with the community.

Create an emphasis on controlling vehicle theft. Auto theft is a

community issue. It creates a sense of disorder in communities, and it most
adversely affects our poorest citizens. When someone’s car is stolen, it
becomes more difficult (or even impossible) to get to work. The District of
Columbia has the highest auto theft rate in the region. The current Mayor
has systematically disassembled the MPD’s auto theft units and has failed to
appoint a Council-mandated and funded Vehicle Theft Prevention

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Commission. Vince Gray knows that auto theft is a “gateway crime,” and
that addressing auto theft pays dividends because people involved in auto
theft are often involved in other crimes. As Mayor, Vince Gray will resurrect
the Washington Area Vehicle Enforcement (WAVE) team, a cross-
jurisdictional initiative to combat vehicle theft. He will ensure that
detectives with a passion for working on auto theft cases are assigned to the
auto theft squad. And, he will appoint members of the Vehicle Theft
Prevention Commission – something the current Mayor has steadfastly
refused to do – so that this serious crime will have a voice with high-level
policymakers.

Increase Transparency and Greater Public Oversight of Police

Operations.
Real community policing depends on trust between the community and the
police department. Transparency, accountability, and oversight of
Department matters, including accurate reporting of staffing and resource
allocation are necessary to build trust. Unfortunately, Mayor Fenty’s war on
transparency has at times spilled over into the MPD, casting a shadow over
the hard work of our front-line officers, and straining the relationship
between the community and MPD. As Mayor, Vince Gray will work to
increase transparency and accountability at MPD.

Improve and Professionalize Investigations.

The closure of a case is based on teamwork. To improve the process, all
parties – the police, prosecutors, investigators, and forensic technicians –
must work as a team. Under a Gray Administration, greater efforts will be
made to ensure that all parties in an investigation will understand their roles,
and receive support in order to close cases. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
ensure that the Police Department provides forensic technicians with the
resources to effectively analyze and evaluate forensic evidence and ensure
that processing meets forensic industry standards. These efforts will
produce increased investigative leads resulting in investigations being
closed in a more timely manner. These efforts will also lead to improved
case coordination, information sharing and increased prosecution of criminal
offenders.

End redeployment of all investigative personnel. Currently, the

Department regularly “redeploys” investigators and other non-patrol
personnel to patrol duties in an effort to bolster its patrol presence. While
this may seem like a good idea, what it really means is that the continuity
and currency of investigations suffers greatly for a short-term increase in the
visibility of uniformed personnel. As Mayor, Vince Gray will end the practice
of redeploying detectives and other investigative personnel and support

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staff, enabling them to devote their full attention to investigating and closing
cases.

Make sure detectives have manageable caseloads. The number of

caseloads assigned to a detective should be based upon the type of cases
the detective or investigator is working and should take into account the
complexity of cases in general or any particular case. For example, a
burglary detective typically should have more cases than a homicide
detective, but a complex burglary ring case could consume enormous
resources and require adjustment to the normally expected caseloads. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will work with the police chief to develop fair guidelines
for setting maximum caseloads.

Track the progress of a case from arrest until final disposition. Using
only arrests as a metric does not make sense and contributes to a lack of
follow-up within the Department. The executive, the legislature, and the
public need to know how and if the criminal justice system is working, and if
not, why. The components of the system, the police, prosecutors, and
judges, need to be monitored and held accountable if they fail, individually or
systemically, to uphold their roles. As Mayor, Vince Gray will open up the
criminal justice system to continuous examination and create an
environment of professional and individual responsibility for police officers,
prosecutors, and judges. By using existing databases to track and document
the status of each case throughout the process, from charging to final
disposition; the effectiveness of the judicial system will be more open to
review and evaluation. This will allow for the Mayor to monitor not only the
system and its components, but also the effectiveness of each criminal
statute.

Support Strategies for Professionalizing the Workforce and

Improving Retention.
As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Refocus on training standards. While our police officers are among the
most dedicated public servants in the District, we need to ensure that their
training and education is an ongoing process. As Mayor, Vince Gray will
require the Department to design and implement new training, mentoring,
and education standards for all newly promoted officials, including, but not
limited to:
• Creation of training for sergeants, lieutenants, and captains – positions
that would be responsible for guiding people newly promoted into
those ranks through the actual practical application of duties and
responsibilities of those positions;
• Specific written descriptions of duties and responsibilities; and

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 • Specific training and vocational goals and standards.

Expand educational opportunities for officers. Education, and access

to education, will become a fundamental part of the District's employment
culture. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
• Work with the Department to expand its tuition reimbursement
program and create tuition incentives for incoming and current
officers. The Department would not only have the benefit of the
member’s services while they were in school, but would also have the
benefits of that officer’s education after graduation. Such incentives
would create an environment where education was valued and sought.
In addition, it would build a Department and a culture that created
long-lasting loyalties and commitment by its members.
• Reach out to area colleges and universities to build partnerships and to
help reduce tuition for government employees. Prior to the Fenty
administration, the Police Officers Standards and Training Board
(POST) and the police union had begun working with the Consortium of
Universities to negotiate special reduced tuition rates for police
officers with District of Columbia universities. Those efforts did not
reach fruition due to the Mayor Fenty's failure to appoint members to
the POST, despite statutory requirements that he do so. Vince Gray
would resurrect those efforts and find a way to increase the education
and skills of government employees at reduced costs.

CRACK DOWN ON VIOLENT OFFENDERS AND CREATE MEANINGFUL

REHABILITATION OPPORTUNITIES
We need to find a way to ensure that the next generation of Washingtonians
has an opportunity to grow up without being victimized or initiated into a
culture of violence. They deserve an opportunity for schools and social
programs to make a positive impact on their lives, so it is important that
they be able to live and play safely without the fear of gun violence. Getting
tough on violent offenders is an important part of establishing that sense of
security, but it needs to be coupled with an ability to rehabilitate and rebuild
the lives of offenders who truly want to change their lives.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will

Establish and manage a permanent gun task force. One of Vince
Gray’s top priorities in public safety is addressing the scourge of guns in the
District, and bringing all of the government’s resources together to
comprehensively address the District’s problem with gun violence. As
Mayor, Vince Gray will task the Deputy Mayor with presiding over a monthly
gun task force with participation from key figures in the community. This
caucus will pull together representatives from the entire continuum –
education, job training, employment opportunities, social services, police,

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prosecutors, parole and probation, and incarceration – into one functioning
body the sole purpose of which will be to stem gun violence. The agenda for
these meetings will be informed by public comments from private citizens,
Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, and public safety organizations. Crime
rates, inmate population, ex-offender employment, jobs, education – these
issues will all have one voice. Gun violence will no longer be tolerated and
ignored.

Rehabilitation and Reentry Programs that Work.

Over 50,000 current residents of the District have been involved with the
criminal justice system. Assisting these offenders in successful reintegration
into our neighborhoods is more than smart – it is essential if we expect ex-
offenders to become productive, law-abiding members of our community.
Our city has an outstanding pretrial services program in the country
operated by the federal government. However, there is not an equivalent,
intensive program for those who have been convicted of crimes and are out
on probation/parole or are reentering our communities after incarceration.
Vince Gray will ensure the availability of opportunities for ex-offenders who
want to change the trajectory of their lives. As Mayor, he will ensure that
ex-offenders are included in DOES job training programs to develop work
skills that will assist with the successful re-entry into the community. In
addition, ex-offenders will be considered for vocational training and
additional educational skill development to assit in the development of their
employment opportunities:

Provide real job training and employment opportunities for ex-

offenders. Vince Gray knows that ex-offenders, especially those with felony
convictions, face extraordinary challenges to gaining meaningful
employment. Many job readiness and training programs will not accept
offenders convicted of certain crimes – even if there are no public safety
concerns. Too many employers continue to discriminate against ex-
offenders. And for many people, huge arrearages of child support prove to
be a major disincentive to legitimate work. As Mayor, Vince Gray will
connect ex-offenders to existing job training and workforce development
opportunities, in particular, at the Community College of the District of
Columbia.

Coordinate supervision and services for ex-offenders. One of the

biggest challenges to ensuring the accountability of offenders in (or
reentering) the community is that the District’s corrections agencies,
prosecutor’s office, and court system all fall under the purview of the federal
government, making it increasingly difficult for local law enforcement and
local service providers to coordinate much needed supervision of, and
services to, this population. As Mayor, Vince Gray will work to bring together

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local and federal agencies to help streamline their work and ensure that
critical services are available, important supervision is provided and
duplication of efforts is minimized. He will draft memoranda of
understanding by and between the federal and local government agencies to
ensure that each works together in ensuring the accountability of, and
provision of services to, offenders.

REIGNITE STALLED EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES REFORM

It can be stressful and upsetting when a person is in need of emergency
medical care. The difficulty of this situation should not be compounded by
doubts surrounding the responsiveness and quality of care provided by the
District’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (FEMS). But with
frequent very public failures appearing in the news, District residents remain
concerned about the quality of emergency medical services in the District of
Columbia. While reform was initiated following the tragic death of David
Rosenbaum, and recommendations were issued by the Task Force on
Emergency Medical Services in 2007, efforts to reform and improve these
services have stalled. Vince Gray knows how essential it is that emergency
medical services be world-class, and that residents should not have lingering
questions about the quality of pre-hospital care in the District.

As Mayor, Vince Gray will:

Reignite stalled reform of emergency medical services and

implement remaining Task Force recommendations. The tragic death
of David Rosenbaum in January 2006 highlighted critical faults within the
District’s emergency medical services (EMS) system. The Task Force on
Emergency Medical Services (Task Force) empanelled to create
recommendations for improvement issued recommendations in September
2007. Nearly three years on, and several recommendations have yet to be
realized with efforts to reform EMS seeming to have stalled. Further, several
recent, public failures illustrate the need for greater attention being given to
reform. The Gray Administration will give reform of EMS the attention it very
much needs and deserves. In order to ensure the District’s EMS is world-
class, Vince Gray will:
• Reconstitute the Task Force on Emergency Medical Services to review
the agency’s progress, revise – if necessary – recommendations, and
create a roadmap to reform. The intent of the Task Force was to
recommend dramatic change to improve emergency service delivery.
FEMS delay in instituting these changes, and continued errors eroding
the public’s confidence in EMS, show that the work of the Task Force is
not complete. Reconstituting this body will ensure a thorough, and
more objective, review of the agency’s performance and what needs to
be done going forward. Placing the public spotlight on this issue will

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 also ensure that changes to service delivery are made. Reforming EMS
takes more than admitting errors were made and terminating
personnel involved.
• Demand FEMS management develop a plan, and show progress
starting day 1, to complete long-lingering Task Force recommendations
for reform. The Executive cannot continue to make excuses about the
failure to deliver on the Task Force’s recommendations. Many of the
central issues addressed by the Task Force have languished for the
past three years, such as the delay in transitioning pay and benefits
parity between single-role and dual-role providers. Though the Council
has enabled this through legislation, the current Administration
continues to drag its feet on this core issue of reform. FEMS will be
required, starting on day one of Mayor Gray’s term, to show progress
towards implementation of remaining recommendations.

Ensure strong medical direction within FEMS by clarifying the role of

Medical Director within the agency and strengthening the position’s
independence. World-class pre-hospital care requires strong medical
direction. In FEMS, where the culture of the agency is strongly linked with
fire suppression, this also requires leadership to elevate the role and stress
the importance of emergency medical services within the agency. Under the
current Administration, the role of EMS has been subjugated and efforts to
institute strong medical direction stifled. As Mayor, Vince Gray will:
• Appoint a strong, independent Medical Director and ensure the
resources and support to bring about true reform to EMS. The Fenty
Administration is now on its third Medical Director, with the current
individual only serving on an interim basis. Further, with eight months
having passed since the previous Medical Director left District service
the Mayor has yet to nominate what would be the fourth Medical
Director in four years. With such a short average length of service it is
impossible for any Medical Director to gain an understanding of the
District’s EMS, much less institute meaningful reform. As a result, it is
impossible for an occupant of the position to remain in such a
frustrating and stifling environment.
• Clarify the role of the Medical Director within the FEMS organizational
structure. While the Medical Director holds the rank of Assistant Fire
Chief, he or she is appointed by the Mayor with the advice and consent
of the Council and may only be removed by the Mayor. The current
Administration has not given this position the authority and autonomy
necessary to ensure quality care. The Medical Director must have
control over all medical decision-making without her/his efforts being
subverted by other interests in the Department. Only when the role of
the Medical Director is made clear to agency leadership, as well as
asserting that the Medical Director has the strong backing of the
Executive, can that individual work aggressively to improve the quality

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 of care within the District.
• Develop strong protocols for pre-hospital care and ensure through
aggressive oversight that those protocols are followed. Too often we
hear from FEMS in response to tragic mishandling of medical services
that protocols were, supposedly, in place, but were not followed.
Providing clarity with regard to the responsibilities of front-line workers,
and aggressively reviewing the operations of EMS response, will ensure
that preventable tragedies are minimized, if not eliminated.

Institute medical quality controls within FEMS and aggressively

audit medical service. To ensure reform is on the right track, and restore
public confidence in EMS delivery, medical quality controls must be put in
place and continuous review of medical service must be conducted. Medical
protocols in the District must surpass national standards. And District
government, as well as the public, must be able to assess the delivery of
emergency medical care against required controls and benchmarks for
improvement. Review of such information will enable the government and
other stakeholders to gain a better picture of the quality of care and see
what is being done to improve emergency medical services. This will also
enable FEMS to develop necessary changes to policy and determine training
needs. Furthermore, it will enable stakeholders to develop recommendations
to strengthen service delivery.

A full picture of what resources, monetary or otherwise, are being directed to

EMS is also essential to making these services world-class. While the Council
has directed that a detailed explanation of financial resources be provided in
the Mayor’s budget proposal, the Fenty Administration has ignored this
directive, refusing to allow public inspection of such details. It is imperative
that FEMS regularly report information on costs and other expenditures
related to EMS. As this agency – with the apparent consent of Mayor Fenty –
overspends its annual budget authority by millions of dollars, continuous
auditing of expenditures is necessary to ensure that funding dedicated to
EMS reform is not reprogrammed to other, unbudgeted and unapproved,
expenditures within the agency. This is important not only for EMS, but for
the multitude of services provided by the agency. While the current
Executive has failed to reign in the overspending by FEMS that occurs year
after year, strong oversight and controls of the FEMS’ budget is necessary to
ensure funding is used for improved medical services, but also to ensure that
resources are available for fire suppression and the adequate training and
equipment for our front-line emergency responders in this agency.

Only by requiring such reporting by FEMS can we ensure that adequate

resources are being directed toward EMS. Only by making this information
available for public inspection can we restore public confidence in the
delivery of pre-hospital emergency medical care.

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Collaborate with front-line workers within FEMS to improve quality
and delivery of both fire suppression and emergency medical
services. Failing to work collaboratively with front-line emergency
responders and their labor representatives serves no legitimate purpose and
is an inexcusable and unnecessary provocation of the men and women that
risk their lives for the residents of the District of Columbia. With increasing
regularity over the past four years, government employees – particularly in
the public safety cluster – have appeared before the Council frustrated by
policies and practices which alienate the District’s workforce. Furthermore,
as execution of union contracts continues to be delayed by the Fenty
Administration, those who risk their lives in emergency situations are finding
it harder and harder to make ends meet.

Working with those on the front-lines, day in and day out, can improve
morale among the workforce. It can also help to contribute to the
development of better policies and practices, ones that are educated by the
knowledge and experiences of those who operate in the field every day.
Working cooperatively we can achieve much more, as many in government
service are anxious to contribute to positive developments in operations and
service delivery. There is nothing to be gained from treating this offer to help
with antagonism. Making the personnel who perform the duties so
necessary to our continued safety a full partner in our efforts will ensure a
safer more pleasant place to live, work, and play. There must be
transparency, collaboration, and accountability to make FEMS a national
model.

Reinstitute the Mayor's EMS Advisory Committee (EMSAC). This vital

committee, established in the law and composed of medical practitioners
and citizens with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, will help ensure the
transparency, collaboration, and accountability needed to oversee the
District's EMS system.

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