By  Aayushma Bastola, Research & Data Fellow; Morgan Grizzle,, et al.

While in 2023 many other urban jurisdictions around the country began to see drops in homicides and other serious violent crime that had spiked postpandemic, the District of Columbia saw rates of violent crimes, like homicide and carjackings, continue to climb.1 That summer, D.C. lawmakers passed emergency legislation with provisions related to law enforcement and the prosecution and sentencing of crimes. In March 2024 the District passed permanent legislation, the Secure DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 (“SECURE DC”), which included changes to D.C. law that had been part of prior expired emergency legislation as well as several new provisions.2 Given the importance of the public’s community safety concerns and the significance of SECURE DC policy changes, this year’s D.C. Criminal Legal System Overview is different from prior editions. This report highlights several aspects of SECURE DC and provides data analyses that can be used as a baseline with which to benchmark changes in crime and incarceration that may be related to the law’s provisions. This Overview also offers data to provide an overview of the District’s criminal legal landscape and to identify who is most impacted by D.C.’s legal systems. For example, this report highlights the growing costs of incarceration and policing in D.C. — reaching over $1 billion for the first time — and the disproportionate number of Black people who are justice-involved, including as victims of crime, in the District. Finally, this report will show that there have been some encouraging changes in terms of public safety from preliminary data for the first half of 2024, including both before and after the passage of SECURE DC. This is the fourth report in which the Council for Court Excellence (CCE) has offered a snapshot of the District’s criminal legal systems. As with past reports, CCE hopes readers find this information useful as we all work to create a safer, healthier, thriving D.C.  

Washington, DC: Council for Court Excellence , 2024. 40,p.

By The Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a tightening labor market, heightened community frustration with the policing profession, and concerns about officer safety and well-being, law enforcement agencies across the country face a historic crisis in recruiting and retaining qualified candidates. SocAs agencies continue to seek innovative ways to attract qualified potential candidates and retain current staff, the crisis demands an immediate and effective response to ensure that law enforcement agencies can maintain staffing levels sufficient to support their communities’ public safety needs. Addressing these issues may necessitate the reexamination of agencies’ foundational organizational structure and processes to more clearly and easily meet the needs and expectations of both law enforcement and the community. In response to this situation and recognizing that the way law enforcement professionals are recruited and retained has a major impact on violent crime reduction, overall public safety, and community trust—Attorney General Merrick Garland identified law enforcement recruitment and retention as a U.S. Department of Justice priority and directed the Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) to hold a convening. On April 18, 2023, a group of more than 30 law enforcement and community leaders from across the country met in Washington, D.C., to discuss existing best practices and emerging and transformative solutions designed to address current staffing challenges. In addition to command staff and other law enforcement leaders from key stakeholder associations, other new vocal and innovative leaders were in attendance to assist in designing a national solution. As Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta noted in her opening remarks, the issues of recruitment and retention are among the most important faced by federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies across the nation, regardless of size or location. The agenda was driven by information obtained from the participants during brief interviews conducted before the event and designed to promote meaningful, actionable discussion. This publication represents the outcomes of the convening, focusing on both short-term strategies and long-term solutions identified by participants, who shared examples of streamlining and modernizing the hiring process, incorporating technology, updating requirements, and increasing accessibility; discussed marketing strategies designed to attract service-oriented candidates; examined existing and potentially new benefits and incentives, including a focus on employee wellness and mental well-being, to entice current employees to stay; and addressed the need for transparency and accountability throughout the hiring and employment process to promote public confidence. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the law enforcement recruitment and retention challenges, agencies are encouraged to consider adopting strategies contained herein as they pertain to their situations.                                                                                                                                                               

Washington DC:  Bureau of Justice Assistance and Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2023. 60p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

STANLEY H. PALMER

PREFACE: This book seeks to right an imbalance and recognize a contribution. The imbalance is the result of two decades of scholarship on English popular protest; the contribution, that of Ireland to British police history. Thanks to pioneering work in the 1960s by Eric Hobsbawm, George Rudé, and Edward Palmer Thompson, work that has been ably continued by succeeding generations of graduate students, historians have made a quantum leap in our knowledge of the motivations and aims, composition and tactics, of crowds and protesters in Georgian and carly Victorian England. By contrast, we still know little about the other side of the confrontation, the forces of order. The result has been an emerging, indeed a growing imbalance in our knowledge about crowds and the authorities. ..”

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS. CAMBRIDGE NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE MELBOURNE SYDNEY. 1988. 840p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

By Bruce Smith

PREFACE: “This volume is a study of American state police forces —of the police bodies maintained by Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Texas, West Virginia; Michigan, New Jersey, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware, and also the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It is concerned primarily with the organization, administrative methods, and statutory powers of those forces. It deals with the position of the police in state administration, their jurisdiction, the powers delegated to the administrative head, the direction, control, compensation and welfare of the rank and file, the distribution of patrol units and the patrol methods which are employed, eriminal investigation, identification and crime prevention.

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF PUBLIO ADMINISTRATION. .1 925, 295p.

MAY CONTAIN MARKUP

BY W. J. WILLIAMS

MORIARTY'S POLICE LAW, now in its 19th edition, continues to serve as a comprehensive guide for police officers navigating the complex legal landscape of their profession. With a meticulous arrangement of laws and regulations, this authoritative volume provides officers with the knowledge and insights they need to uphold law and order effectively. From the basics of criminal procedure to the latest updates in policing standards, this essential resource remains a trusted companion for law enforcement professionals seeking clarity and guidance in their daily duties.

LONDON. BUTTERWORTHS. 1968. 728p.

By Bernadeta Lelonek-Kuleta

Despite the abandonment of the criterion of committing illegal acts in the diagnosis of pathological gambling in fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), research confirms the significant link between crime, gambling, and gambling addiction. In Poland, this connection is observed by psychologists working in the prison service, who simultaneously report the need for more structured interactions that would solve gambling problems among prisoners. The lack of any data on the involvement of persons committing crimes in gambling in Poland formed the basis for the implementation of a survey of gambling behaviour and gambling problems among male offenders in Polish correctional institutions. A total of 1,219 sentenced men took part in the study. The research tool included 75 questions, including queries from the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS). Based on SOGS, the prevalence rate of severe problem gambling was 29.4% over the lifetimes of the prisoners. As many as 13.1% of respondents admitted to having gambled in prison. This activity usually involved cards, bets or dice. More than 74% of incarcerated men who gambled in prison met the criteria for pathological gambling. Prisoners who gambled more in prison than at liberty made up 27.7%. As many as 69.3% of respondents declared that while in prison, they had met fellow convicts experiencing problems because of gambling. The study shows that criminals continue gambling after detention, especially those who are problem gamblers, an overall finding which implies the need to implement preventive and therapeutic interventions in correctional institutions. 

Lublin, Poland, Journal of Gambling Issues Volume 44. 2020, 18pg