A plan for joint police patrols to curb crime along the troubled border shared by the District and Prince George's County has yet to get off the ground, despite promises of quick action by officials nearly four months ago.
Authorities in both jurisdictions, accompanied by the U.S. marshal for the District, announced the program at a news conference Oct. 4 and pledged to begin the joint patrols in a few weeks. They said that 16 D.C. and Prince George's officers would be deputized as special deputy U.S. marshals, allowing them to make arrests in each other's jurisdictions. A similar strategy had been deemed successful in the 1990s.
Last week, authorities blamed paperwork delays for the slow start, which drew criticism from community leaders and a D.C. Council member.
The boundary areas have long been frustrating for local police because unless they see a felony in progress, they generally are barred from crossing the line. When D.C. officers patrol their side of the line, drug dealers and prostitutes often cross over into Maryland. When Prince George's officers arrive, the offenders sometimes jump back into the District.
Elected officials and high-ranking police officers attended the October announcement ceremony, held on an Oxon Hill corner near the border. Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and the U.S. marshal for the District, George B. Walsh, signed an agreement outlining the initiative. Charles H. Ramsey and Melvin C. High, police chiefs of the District and Prince George's, respectively, also signed it.
Ramsey said last week that he believes the program could start by summer. He referred other questions about it to Assistant D.C. Police Chief Willie Dandridge, who supervises officers on the city side of the border. Dandridge, who oversees the 6th and 7th police districts in Northeast and Southeast, said police forwarded the proper paperwork for background checks to the U.S. Marshals Service and were awaiting action.
Dandridge said D.C. police were told by marshals officials that the program was being delayed because an off-duty deputy was involved in a fatal shooting in Rockville in late October. "The marshal shooting slowed the process tremendously," Dandridge said.
David Turner, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in the District, denied that the shooting delayed the initiative. Turner said that local marshals could not move forward with deputizing officers until officials at the agency's headquarters and at the Department of Justice finished reviewing plans for the joint patrol.
"I wish it were quicker," Turner said.
Prince George's police said they are optimistic that the program might start soon.
"We hope it will be an initiative we can still put into place, and we're working on the details to make that happen," said Barbara Hamm, a police spokeswoman.
Community leaders and a D.C. Council member expressed frustration with the delay and said police need to do a better job of following through on promises.
"The chiefs should have been able to cut through the red tape to make this happen," said Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the D.C. Council's Judiciary Committee. "There is no question that there needs to be cross-jurisdictional efforts, because criminals know no boundaries.
"This suggests a lack of will to make this happen," Mendelson said.
"It's about priorities," said Sheila Carson-Carr, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who represents the Benning Heights area in Southeast Washington, "and we are not a high priority."
The October announcement came as Prince George's police were battling a spike in homicides: 148 people slain in the county last year, more than double the number killed in 2000.
Police officials in both jurisdictions said they are eager to start the joint patrols, citing the success of similar initiatives in the past.
In 1999, police from the District and Prince George's were deputized as federal marshals, allowing them to cross the border and make arrests. The program resulted in more than 1,000 arrests in two years. But it ended when the Marshals Service, which normally closely monitors the work of officers it deputizes for task forces, said the agency did not have enough supervisors to oversee the program.
