D.C. Mayor Wants Study Of Need for More Police

Partly in response to a crime spike, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams says the city might need 1,300 more officers. (By Haraz N. Ghanbari -- Associated Press)

Calling for a review of police staff levels and deployment, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that the District may need to hire hundreds of officers to meet the twin demands of a growing population and a rising crime rate.

"We may have to go up to some higher number," Williams said, adding that restoring the department to its past peak of 5,100 officers may be a possibility.

Williams (D), who is retiring in January, said he has spoken with Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and other top officials about designing "a really good, comprehensive review of deployment" so the city can determine "what we need and what citizens want."

"It took a lot of work to get up to 3,800" officers, the size of the current force, Williams said. "But I think looking at trends over the last four or five months," he said, deployment "is an important question, especially for the next mayor."

Williams said that a comprehensive study might indicate that "we need additional troops out there in order to get 911 and citizen response to where it should be."

Williams's comments, made yesterday during a news conference at the John A. Wilson Building and first reported by WRC (Channel 4), come when the District is enduring a spike in street crime, with some criminals targeting the Mall and other areas frequented by tourists. A surge in killings, robberies and armed assaults prompted Ramsey to declare a crime emergency July 11.

Last week, the D.C. Council approved emergency legislation to give police $8 million in extra funds so Ramsey can implement a six-day workweek. That will put the equivalent of 300 additional officers on the streets immediately, according to the mayor's office.

In addition, council members voted this year to permanently increase the force by 450 officers. Even without those reinforcements, the District already has more police per capita than any other large U.S. city, primarily because the city is home to more than 30 law enforcement agencies.

At its peak in the 1970s, the District's force had nearly 5,100 officers. The number fell to about 4,000 in the late 1980s and declined further during the city's financial crisis in the early 1990s.

In 2003, Williams and Ramsey pushed to boost the force back up to 3,800 -- at the time, an increase of 175 officers. It took more than a year to reach that goal due to attrition and difficulties attracting qualified recruits.

Yesterday, Ramsey agreed with Williams that the department needs more officers, but he said he isn't sure how many.

"If our goal is to continue to drive crime down to the lowest possible level, we need to have more officers," Ramsey said. "You also have to make the same investment in social services: drug treatment, mental health services, programs for kids. You need to look at all those things that drive crime."

Reaction among council members was mixed.

Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), who is seeking the Democratic nomination to replace Williams, said the city should hire the extra officers already approved by the council before adding more.

"I know we need more presence in the community," Cropp said. "We have added 450 police officers in addition to what we have now. We need to have an evaluation process to see if the presence is being felt in our neighborhoods."

Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4) and Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5), who are also running for mayor, applauded Williams's call for more officers, as did Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), the Judiciary Committee chairman, who is running for reelection.

"If the mayor's saying we're going to look at what the right size of the force is with the potential of increasing it, I support that," Fenty said.

Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), a candidate to replace Cropp as chairman, sounded a note of caution.

"There are several ways to improve policing in the short term without hiring more officers," she said, noting that the department can hire only about 100 officers a year. "We need better policing, better supervision, better allocation of resources. We can do that today. Bringing on more people would take us a huge amount of time."