Police Chiefs Cite Youths in Crime Rise, Call for More Federal Funds

Los Angeles Chief William Bratton described a "gathering storm of crime." (Nick Ut - AP)

Cincinnati had a 30-year high in homicides last year. Philadelphia recorded the city's most killings in 10 years. And Orlando logged its most slayings ever.

Violent crime is rising in many communities across the country, including the Washington area, and police chiefs and mayors from about 50 cities and counties gathered in the District yesterday to discuss, and vent about, the trend.

"We are here to say, America, we have a problem," Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton told the group. "We need to refocus on this gathering storm of crime."

Crime is at a "tipping point" in America, said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which organized the National Violent Crime Summit.

"We are turning the country over to our young people, and they are killing each other," said Dean Esserman, police chief of Providence, R.I., where robberies have increased. "Violence has become gratuitous. Where is the moral outrage?"

One after another, participants recited grim statistics.

In Washington, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey declared a crime emergency last month after the city had 11 homicides in 13 days, on top of a 15 percent increase in robberies.

Suburban Washington has been struggling with some of the same trends. Robbery hit an all-time high in Montgomery County last year and is up 10 percent this year. Crime has dipped this year in Prince George's County, but last year the county logged a record number of homicides.

In Alexandria, robberies are up 24 percent, and in Fairfax County they jumped by 25 percent.

Across the country, crime has slowed significantly since the crack cocaine wars of the 1990s, which brought an explosion of slayings and violence. But in the past 18 months, officials say, they have seen gunplay, robberies and other violence returning to the streets.

Last year, about 16,000 people were slain across the nation.

The killings are fueled by everything from methamphetamines in Las Vegas to gangs in Sacramento, Calif., officials said.