Police OT Credited in Crime Dip
Weekend Blitz Ordered by D.C. Chief Ends With Twice as Many Arrests

By Allison Klein and Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday that crime across the District dipped 10 percent last weekend as a result of her "all hands on deck" initiative, in which 3,300 members of the force worked a pair of overtime shifts.

The department made 650 arrests -- double the number for an average weekend, Lanier said. Relatively few were for homicides and other violent crimes. The largest share -- 153 -- was for prostitution and related crimes, followed by 118 arrests for reckless driving and other serious traffic offenses.

The police activity drew praise from some neighborhood activists and kept judges at D.C. Superior Court working into the night, as many of those jailed over the weekend made their first appearances yesterday. But the impact could be short-lived: Lanier said she is not planning to repeat the weekend blitz this summer.

Lanier, who took office in December, said her strategy was to set the tone for summer. She said that the number of crimes was 10 percent below the average number reported the previous five weekends. Still, some officers grumbled yesterday that the approach was show, not substance.

"Officers know a P.R. stunt when they see it," said Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Committee, adding that it was a drain on resources to have officers work a pair of 12-hour shifts. "They are saying, 'Here we go again.' "

The department's own research shows that the weekends aren't even the busiest time in some high-crime areas, Baumann said. For example, in the 7th District, the southernmost area east of the Anacostia River, crime is highest on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Baumann said the tactics were not much different from the approach taken by Lanier's predecessor, Charles H. Ramsey, who declared "crime emergencies" in three of the past four summers -- a move that gave him more flexibility in changing officers' schedules and ordering them to work overtime. But officers resented it, and they were upset when Ramsey forced them to cancel some vacations.

Lanier said she believes that the expanded police presence, which cost about $1.3 million in overtime, sent neighborhood residents the message that the department is responsive to community concerns. The number of arrests -- between 6 a.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Sunday -- turned out to be higher than police initially reported; on Sunday, police said an earlier tally counted 492 arrests.

The rest of Lanier's summer crime-fighting plan relies on proactive patrols and other tactics developed after analyzing trends during the past five years.

Baumann said officers are looking forward to carrying out those efforts and appreciate that they were developed by each of the seven district commanders.

D.C. residents said they noticed more police last weekend.

Sandra Seegars, a community activist in Ward 8, said she saw about 50 police cadets in brown uniforms knocking on doors and talking to people in her Congress Heights neighborhood. There was little violence over the weekend, she said. "It was quiet day and night."

The cadets asked her how police could do better in Congress Heights, and she said she told them, among other things, that her neighborhood needs more of them.

"They need to slow down when they drive through so they can see things and we can see them," Seegars said. "They also need to drive through the alleys more and shine their lights back there."

At Superior Court on Saturday, nearly 200 cases were called until well into the night. That process was repeated yesterday in the room known as C-10 -- the nerve center of the courthouse, where most of those arrested made their first appearances before a judge.

Each of the dozen wooden benches in the courtroom was filled, something courthouse employees say they never see, even on busy Mondays or after long holiday weekends.

Magistrate Judge Michael J. McCarthy said he knew it would be a long day, so he began hearing cases an hour early and warned the crowd at 2:30 p.m. that they might miss the 10 o'clock news.

"I apologize," he said. "We have twice the number we normally do. We're doing the best we can."

A large bulletin board hanging in the hall listed scores of names and charges McCarthy would hear: mostly people locked up for drug possession, prostitution, violating protection orders, having unregistered firearms and simple assault.

The process sped up only as the court dismissed a fraction of cases because prosecutors did not want to move ahead with them. On Saturday, for example, 33 of the 181 cases called were "no-papered," meaning the charges didn't stick.

Some in the hallway crowd complained that the weekend arrests were excessive, but Mike Jones, a quiet 19-year-old, didn't express an opinion. Jones was still upset that on Saturday night he saw "a bunch of cops just showing up and pushing everybody up for no reason."

Instead of venting, Jones rubbed the back of the baby asleep on his shoulder and kept a protective eye on Deshawn Buchanan's other two children. Buchanan, who is Jones's girlfriend's sister, was arrested Sunday morning on a charge of simple assault and assigned Lockup Number 167.

Jones had sat in that hallway before, he said, but he had never seen so many people.

"They pushed everyone out of the courtroom because there are no seats," he said.

Staff writer Henri E. Cauvin contributed to this report.