Crime Measures Derided as Too Little, Too Late

Deputy Mayor Brenda Donald Walker said the District spends $2.2 billion annually on children's welfare and needs to do more. (Photos By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)

The D.C. Black Church Initiative is pushing a plan to spend $15 million to $20 million a year putting as many as 75 outreach workers on the streets and starting conflict resolution centers.

"Curfews don't work," said the Rev. Anthony Evans, president of the umbrella group of 800 African American and Latino faith organizations. "The city has a piecemeal approach that has not worked. What does is mentoring."

Last year, the Alliance of Concerned Men asked city leaders for about $1 million to create a mobile crisis intervention unit, an emergency hotline and an intensive program for at-risk kids. The city gave the group about $100,000 for an outreach and mentoring program for teenagers and young adults, some of whom have been in trouble for stealing cars, getting high, shoplifting or committing robbery.

There is a consistent theme to what the youths say: Boredom sends them astray.

Dale Johnson, 17, said that's why he started stealing cars, about 50 in the past three years. He has been arrested and released numerous times for unauthorized use of a vehicle.

"There was nothing for me to do," said Johnson, who lives in Southeast and is visited three times a day by a counselor. His last arrest was five months ago.

In Northwest, near Adams Morgan, a 14-year-old picked up by police at a convenience store last week offered the same explanation. He said he attends private school. His mother watches him all day and works odd hours. When officers grabbed him, he was drinking a Red Bull. It was 1 a.m.

"I had to get out of the house," he said, twirling his hair while waiting in the curfew processing center inside the 3rd District police station.

Sgt. T.D. Best, an 18-year D.C. police veteran, said he encounters similar youths every day as he patrols his beat in historic Anacostia. With minimal adult supervision, many youths turn to stealing cars and joy riding because it's "the social thing to do," Best said.

He doubts an earlier curfew will do much good and wishes the city would instead improve schools and press businesses to fund more jobs for youths. The D.C. Council, as part of emergency legislation, authorized $1.25 million for youth sports, $400,000 for extended library hours and $200,000 for gang/crew mediation.

"The curfew gives us another tool," Best said. "But most of the kids are hanging out in front of their homes. You can't tell them to go home because they're already home. They don't go inside because it's hot and many apartments don't have air conditioning.

"Until we deal with the social and economic issues, we're always going to have these problems."