Pinto releases plans to tackle crime as violent summer ends

D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) released a set of proposals Monday intended to shape the council’s response to a surge in crime across the city — including provisions to allow police to randomly search people charged with violent offenses who are on pretrial release, which drew immediate pushback from judges.

While the council passed a stopgap emergency measure amid spiking crime in July, Pinto’s combination of preexisting plans and new ideas seeks to provide a more robust response by, for example, increasing crime prevention and surveillance in highly trafficked areas and forcing people convicted of gun crimes to submit to more onerous restrictions or penalties. Pinto, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, also plans to move a permanent version of the emergency legislation that passed in July, which expanded pretrial detention for adults and juveniles charged with violent crimes.

“This package certainly does not solve all of the inequities and challenges that we’re experiencing in our city, many of which play a major role in leading to more crime,” Pinto said. “What I will say is that this bill and package has a number of initiatives that will prevent crime,” such as setting up a hospitality industry program at the D.C. jail and increasing emergency communications and surveillance along public transit.