D.C. Crackdown On Car Thefts Is Hitting Home

Amid Talk of New Penalties, Family Support Called Key

D.C. police Inspector Lillian Overton was angry. She was at the Boys & Girls Club in Northeast Washington, near the end of another 16-hour day, to talk with juvenile car thieves and the parents and guardians who are supposed to watch over them. Her officers were there, too, many on their own time after a full day of duty.

The group was to include 30 boys and at least as many parents -- who signed up for a court-supervised program that requires them to participate. But only 22 children and 15 adults showed up, and many of the adults appeared only after Overton sent them a letter warning them of the consequences of not being there.

If parents defy the law, then how can children be expected to respect it, Overton asked after the children had been sent to another room. "Because there are no boundaries in your home," she told the adults, "there will be no boundaries in society."

Most of the adults in the room Thursday night were mothers. A couple were aunts or grandmothers. One grandmother came without her grandson. An uncle of one boy was there, as was the brother of another. Most troubling to Overton: No fathers were there.

The meeting at the Boys & Girls Club on Benning Road NE was part of Operation Prevent Auto Theft, a series of lectures, counseling sessions and other activities for young offenders and their families. Started in December, the police-led program is heralded as a promising way to reach children and adults in the city's struggle to halt juvenile car theft and its deadly results.

Just in the past five weeks, four people have been killed in crashes blamed on teenage car thieves, who use the vehicles for everything from joy riding to making getaways from burglaries and other crimes. On Monday, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) announced an all-out effort to end the problem.

The mayor acknowledged that the city fell short in its efforts after two similar deaths last year and said that officials are "redoubling our effort." But the struggles suggest that the scourge is far more complicated than just the juveniles who are the face of the problem.

Proposals for stiffer punishments are moving forward. Plans to upgrade parks and recreation centers are once again on the table. But many people involved in combating car theft and juvenile crime say young people are unlikely to change until adults own up to their responsibility -- and until the government does what it takes to see that they do.

Overton, commander of the youth division and coordinator of the prevention project, made her feelings plain Thursday. "It doesn't take a village," she said. "It takes Mom and Dad."

The group sat in silence.

"We're losing it, folks. We're losing it, and because we're losing it, our children are suffering," she said. "These people are getting ready to hang these kids, and then they're going to come after you."

She was alluding to the tough talk coming from top city officials. A proposal to impose mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles found to have committed a car theft crime more than once is among ideas making headway. Another proposal would limit the driving privileges of parents of chronic offenders.

Overton told the women that it was time for them to put aside whatever differences they had with the children's fathers and wherever possible to bring them or other male authority figures back into the lives of their boys. "You had them, and that requires sacrifice," she said.

Each of the 22 boys at the club, some as young as 12, had been arrested for having something to do with a stolen car in the 6th Police District, the epicenter of the city's car theft problem. Some had stolen a car; others were caught riding in one.